FAR’s Children’s Support Foundation Center (CSFC) recently formed a monitoring group to strengthen child protection in Armenia. The group is comprised of individuals from NGOs and international organizations who will start to regularly observe children at selected educational institutions for signs of abuse. Members of the group will also watch for children who have been misclassified with developmental disabilities and placed in schools for children with mental and physical disabilities in order to qualify for free food and lodging — something that has been a growing issue since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Visits will be unannounced and the group will submit all their findings to the Ministry of Education as they develop prevention mechanisms.