After thoroughly washing the potatoes, Arina slices them thinly for the stove, preparing their favorite evening snack— “Tsipul,” the Armenian version of potato chips, a family favorite.
“We’ve been making Tsipul since December, when we received firewood and set up the stove,” says Azniv Stepanyan, 35, a mother of five: Alisa, 6, Arina, 8, Arianna, 12, Arman, 15, and Arevik, 16.
Beyond firewood, the Stepanyans—along with more than 400 displaced families from Berd, Ijevan, and Noyemberyan regions of Berd Province—have been receiving monthly non-food item packages through the Comprehensive Assistance to Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh and Vulnerable Host Communities project. Made possible by a generous grant from the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) to FAR and Sign of Hope (SoH), the initiative will soon provide families with home appliances, kitchenware, bedding, and towels.
Once the chips are ready, Arina heads to their storage, grabs a container of pickled cucumbers she made with her mother and sisters, and washes it with dish soap from the hygiene package they received two days ago. She then opens the jar, places the pickles on a plate, washes her hands, neatly fixes her ponytails, and smiles. “Mom uses a different shampoo now. Don’t you see the difference?” she asks. Azniv smiles and explains how grateful she is for the hygiene supplies. “As a mother of four daughters, hygiene is more important to me than food. I’d rather go hungry than not have hygiene essentials for my kids. These items are very expensive, we used to spend 60,000 drams a month just on the basics. This support is essential and timely for us.”
For the past year and a half, the family has been renting a house for 70,000 AMD per month. While Artur Stepanyan, 41, does seasonal gardening work, they have no stable income. Their eldest daughter, Arevik, who has Down syndrome, has struggled since their displacement. “She often cries and becomes anxious. FAR’s psychologist tried working with her, but she refuses to talk to anyone. Recently, we started attending piano and vocal lessons, and it helps her a little,” shares Azniv who was forced to leave her home on September 25, barely managing to take their documents—nothing else.
Azniv never imagined she would have to flee her homeland in Artsakh’s Martuni region to stay alive. She misses every moment spent in Sos village, where she married Artur at 17. “As we left Artsakh, the kids slept in the car, and my whole life flashed before me. But deep in my heart, I knew this was the only way to survive. They were bombing heavily, nonstop. I only prayed for my children and family to stay alive. Our salvation was in God’s hands, and by His grace, we made it to Armenia after a grueling three-day journey. We survived on bread, water, and nuts from our garden. Since we didn’t have much bread, we would put more nuts in each piece to make it last for everyone,” she recalls.
War and displacement turned their lives upside down, and now, their greatest wish is to have a place of their own home, no matter how small.
“We’ve endured so much, and we’re strong enough to move forward. We just need a helping hand to stand on our feet again. We’ve found peace in Getahovit village—the people are kind, the children go to school, and they’ve made friends. Now, all we need is a place to call home.”
The "Comprehensive Assistance to Refugees from Nagorno Karabakh and Vulnerable Host Communities" project was made possible due to a generous grant provided to FAR and Sign of Hope (SoH) by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO), as a contribution to our continuous support to refugee families settled across Armenia. Thanks to their generosity, we have been able to reach out to over 400 refugee families in Berd, Ijevan, and Noyemberyan providing mental health and psychosocial support, protection services, and assistance with shelter, non-food items, and winterization.
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