Four Institutions for Child Care and Protection Closed

The government decided at today’s meeting to dissolve the overnight care institutions for children in Dilijan, Bureghavan, Gyumri, and the Fridtjof Nansen Center for Child Care and Protection.

The financial resources resulting from the dissolution of these organizations will be used to increase the number of crisis centers for child care and foster families in the regions and Yerevan, as well as to provide them with material support.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has stated that the government’s adopted policy aims to ensure that child care and upbringing are provided within families, with the goal of returning children from 24-hour institutions to their biological families, facilitating guardianship and adoption, and reducing the number of children in night care institutions.

During the government meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized, “We will advance this reform with the aim of increasing the competitiveness of children in boarding institutions, orphanages, and similar establishments in life—on all levels. We aim to enhance their confidence in their own capabilities, equipping them with knowledge and skills so that they do not carry the label ‘I am a graduate of an orphanage’ throughout their lives, making it their main brand in life. Instead, they can secure their own well-being through their own work and the development of their talents.”

Based on the needs assessed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, individual social development programs for children and their families have been developed. “To implement the measures envisaged in the individual social development programs for children and their families, the ministry collaborates with international and civic organizations,” the ministry reported.

The ministry's study has shown that a significant portion of the children cared for in the overnight institutions in Dilijan, Bureghavan, Gyumri, and the Fridtjof Nansen Center were placed there due to socio-economic issues in their families, with the number of unemployed in these families being twice that of employed individuals.