With the Deputy Governor in the homes of beneficiaries, and with a beneficiary in the Deputy Governor's office

One of the key challenges of working with disabled and socially vulnerable children is to ensure that they get access to the medical treatment and social benefits that they need and deserve, and that they realize their full potential to get an education.
As part of the 'A Healthy Start' project in the western province of Armavir, Mission East is working with our local partner Nur to help more than 800 disabled and socially vulnerable children who have been 'detected' as part of this project. In 2006 we started the project by carrying out a survey in the area, but the work of 'finding' new children is still ongoing. Every month around 7 or 8 'new' children are added to the list of those needing our attention.
In working with the beneficiaries, however, apart from making sure that the children get the help they need, our main goal is to ensure that our local partner Nur are able to carry out this work even after the project finishes next year. And to this end, one of their key jobs is to 'advocate' the cause of these children in dialogue with the local authorities. One of the key persons among the local authorities in Armavir is the Deputy District Governor, Larisa Muradyan, with whom we have pleaded to intervene both in single cases, but above all, with whom we are working to ensure that a mechanism is put into place that will ensure that no more children fall through the 'gaps' of the system.
In order to facilitate a direct dialogue between Larisa Muradyan as a high government official, and the local beneficiaries, we invited Mrs. Muradyan to join us on a number of visits to beneficiaries in Armavir.