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YEREVAN, DECEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. From now on, elderly people in Armenia in need of help will have their “grandchildren”. Shushan Yekmalyan, Mariam Yeganyan and Armine Tovmasyan living in France have jointly established Tornik Association for Intergenerational Mutual Aid in Armenia aimed at assisting isolated elderly people.
Speaking to ARMENPRESS, co-founder of the initiative Shushan Yekmalyan said that the idea to establish the association was born in spring 2022 after returning from Yerevan. During their visits to Armenia, the founders of the initiative saw many elderly people who are in isolation. This was the motive of thinking about creating such a project.
“We can surely say that the COVID-19 pandemic and the 44-Day War had their impact, but the latest Armenian-Azerbaijani clash this September was a wake-up call for us to quickly take actions. We started the practical steps two months ago with the discussions about the choice of the format of our initiative and the start of the legal registration process. Today we already have a registration and a status of NGO. We have created the media tools of TORNIK, like a website, social media accounts. We are operating with our own resources, although we have received little donations from familiar and non-familiar persons”, Shushan said.
She informed that the project will start in Yerevan, but later they have plans to expand the geography, including also Armenia’s all settlements, including the border settlements which need them the most.
The project beneficiaries are the elderly people. TORNIK is a charitable project which aims at not only filling the lack of loneliness among the elderly, but also creating an inter-generational link.
“For that purpose, we gathered volunteers in the ages between 14 and 20 who will become “grandchildren” for the elderly people who need a grandchild. In order to become a member, it is necessary to fill out the form in our website which is designed for the elderly people and young “grandchildren”. We help restore the social connection in the relations between grandmother-grandfather and grandchildren. The talk is about the moral, psychological support, not material”, she said.
As for the help to be provided, she said that the “grandchildren” will accompany the elderly people during their walk, will organize cultural visits for them, will teach them how to use new technologies, will help them in daily works, and also will provide food aid in extreme situations.
“Already several elderly people have applied to us. At the moment we are registering future “grandchildren” so that we can start the concrete actions as soon as possible”, she said.
As for their future plans, Shushan Yekmalyan said that they want to expand the project very much so that they will be able to open offices across Armenia to provide this opportunity to as many people as possible.
Gayane Gaboyan