Gavar Special School

Gavar Special School won a grant for $5,000 from the United States Peace Corps’ Small Project Assistant Grant Project. The project awards up to $5,000 to an organization to carry out a development project. The project that Gavar Special School submitted was to buy 31 new beds so that 31 new students could come to Gavar Special School to study. Currently, the beds are US Army surplus cots which are in awful shape and cannot support the weight of the older students. Using both the cots and the new beds will allow us to accommodate the larger students.

We know there are over 650 children in the Gegharkunik region who have special needs but receive no formal education. New research is beginning to show this number to be much bigger than the official statistics show. At the same time, convincing families to allow their children to study at Gavar Special School is very difficult as the Armenian family culture does not allow for the child to leave the family. While this is understandable, it is also difficult as the special needs children in the family receive no education. If the child is educated and given both basic education and living skills, the family will have a better life as the child in his/her adult years can help the family economically.

We are pleased to announce that we have enrolled 11 new students at Gavar Special School most coming from the Martuni and Sevan village districts. At the same time, we are struggling in convincing the parents of existing students that they need to remain for the full semester at Gavar Special School. Many of the parents will request their children be brought home for a weekend and then they will not return them to Gavar Special School for weeks. This sets the children back and does not allow for continuity in their education plan.

We strive to be sensitive to the family’s need but realize that we cannot demand the return of the child to school. We are hoping to find ways to educate the parents of the special needs children that they can have a productive life if properly educated. Gavar Special School is central to that task of education and as the school improves we hope parents will see that it is a comfortable and productive learning environment. It is a classic “what comes first” question: the education or the environment, but we feel that if we can have a stable and safe environment the education will quickly improve!

In closing, you can see the pictures of the new beds. They cost 65,000 Dram each for the frame and mattress. We thank the United States Peace Corps for awarding Gavar Special School this grant and realizing the need for better sleeping accommodations at the school. We hope to have 65 children on a nightly basis by the end of March staying at Gavar Special School. It is a challenge to keep the kids but slowly we will be successful in changing the culture of exclusion and showing families that it is productive for the child and their future to properly educate them and give them life skills!

If you have questions about our challenges of culture, please be sure to post them below and we will get you the answers as quickly as possible.