The Child Protection Network (CPN), which consists of 11 child and family protection organizations and was initiated by the FAR Children’s Center, recently met with the Minister of Territorial Administration Armen Gevorgyan, Deputy Minister Vache Terteryan and Prime Minister of Labor and Social Issues Philaret Berikyan on June 4th, where they spoke about the ongoing issues of the lack of adequate public housing in Armenia.
CPN had a unique opportunity to raise a number of other issues including:
The importance of social workers in each community to deal with marginalized families;
Mobilization and utilization of existing resources in communities;
Strengthening of deinstitutionalization process focusing on empowerment of families; and
The importance PSA broadcasting free of charge due to the amended law regulation.
Social housing is a crucial issue in Armenia. Throughout the country, there are thousands of homeless families living in temporary shelters that lack basic standard conditions. The aim of the Child Protection Network is to push the government to improve regulations and laws on this issue, and to inform it about social problems based on the field research conducted by CPN’s member organizations, including the lack of adequate social housing in Armenia.
Discussions between the group and other will continue on each of these issues. Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan suggested having a number of meetings in all marzes and to develop a collaboration plan between the government and NGOs to find a solution.