After a five year struggle by World Vision, the Yerevan Special School N18 in Nubarashen, renowned as a place of violence and abuse against children, will close within the next two months.

The ‘Special School’ is a residential facility for children aged eight to 18 with anti-social or delinquent behaviour. But rather than hosting only children with anti-social behaviour, the institution has been home to many children from vulnerable families with no record of delinquency.
 

An assessment revealed that abusive and severe methods have been used against the children.  Children have been beaten, deprived of food, have had limited communication with their families and have been forced to engage in beggary. 

The number of registered children has also been drastically inflated in order to attract more funding from the state.

Initially, World Vision became involved in the Special School N18 back in 2004 within its Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances (CEDC) project, which aimed to facilitate the process of deinstitutionalisation and secure child rights protection in special institutions. UNICEF and Médecins Sans Frontières have also been partners in supporting child protection in the institution.

“It was soon clear that the institution didn’t justify itself and that the need of having it was artificially created”, said Khristine Mikhailidi, Operations Manager for World Vision Armenia.

World Vision then started to work with the Government towards its closure, and enable children to go back to their families. Meanwhile, staff continued to work to improve the atmosphere and environment within the institution.

Mrs.  Mikhailidi says the Special School failed to secure adequate conditions for the children. “It failed to provide minimal educational and living conditions for children: food, sanitary and hygiene conditions, the level of education was not meeting any standards. The School also lacked specialised professionals, psychologists and social workers who would have the capacity and skills to help these children”, she explains.

World Vision took a number of measures to address these failings. “We negotiated with the MOES to change the status of the Special School from ‘closed’ to ‘open’. This would let children communicate with their parents and contribute to their reintegration into society afterwards”, explains Anahit Grigoryan, World Vision’s Child Protection Programme Coordinator. “In addition, social workers and psychologists have been working with the children, their parents, as well as with the School educators and staff”.

Now, the priority is where and how these children will be cared for when the school is closed. “All the cases will have an individual approach and a respective solution”, says Anahit Grigoryan. “World Vision will make maximum efforts to re-unify children with their families”.

“Every child’s place is in the family.  No matter how good they are, special institutions never give children the warmth and love they receive in their families, even if those families are not flawless”, says Kristine Mikhailidi.

“On the contrary, experience shows that by keeping delinquent children in institutions that do not have any specialised services, we only create a particular layer of people who will then become criminals as they leave the institution at age 18”. Mrs Mikhailidi concludes, “What children with anti-social behaviour need most is professional attention, not correction or punishment”.

A commission comprised of representatives from the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia (MOES), the National Commission of Child Protection and World Vision Armenia, will undertake the closure process.