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On June 13 the NA Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights and Public Affairs jointly with the USAID Support Program to the RA NA left for Maralik on a working visit. The goal of the visit was to study the conditions of the apartments provided for the orphanage graduates.

The Committee firstly visited Maralik Municipality, where the Committee Chair Elinar Vardanyan, the Committee member Tigran Stepanyan and the deputy elected from the marz Mushegh Petoyan during the talk with the Mayor of Maralik Artak Gevorgyan got informed about the problems regarding housing, employment and everyday conditions of the orphanage graduates. The Mayor and Zorik Khachatryan, the Specialist of the Territorial Department in Shirak Municiplaity, informed the attendees that 30 apartments had been already provided to the graduates of the RA orphanages by state program. The Mayor has noted that the “Social” block looks improved; it has a social worker and a specialist-doctor. The “Supporting Family” model has been invested in the block, now the idea of establishing a charitable canteen is under debate. The participants touched upon the necessity of teaching crafts and organizing training courses for the orphans.

Then the Committee members visited Maralik “Social” block, where they got acquainted with the problems concerning the graduates. The Committee Chair Elinar Vardanyan has told the graduates that their goal is to study and understand the effectiveness of the housing assistence programme, listen to the residents’ opinions and submit respective proposals to the RA Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The orphanage graduates have noted that the housing problem is solved and they are pleased with it, nevertheless, they are still in need of the employment, everyday and communal problems to be solved.

The deputies took a tour in the apartments, got acquainted with the building and everyday conditions. They had been in the basement, which was a large territory, and the idea of creating workshops there was discussed, which also might solve the employment problem.

At the end of the visit the Committee Chair Elinar Vardanyan promised them to refer to all the issues and submit the proposals to the Ministry, noting that the problems should be discussed more comprehensively in the parliamentary hearings to be held in autumn.