A ” Thank you ” from Maralik
News from the elderly home care training project in Armenia
“First of all, I must convey to you the thanks of the population of Maralik, and in particular of the elderly, and of our collaborators in Armenia”. It was with these words that Riccardo Boschetti, the president of the Association for the Care of the Elderly in Armenia (AAAA) opened the evening organised to inform about the development of the project, in the presence of some thirty people. ( pdf of the slide show presented at the evening 
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| The project, which started a year ago, is progressing well. Between April last year and the end of March this year, the training of home helpers was drawn up, based on the needs identified on the ground, and taking into account the culture and resources available. This consists of five parts, providing basic training in this field: Hygiene, Mobility, Nutrition, Basic Care, Professional Ethics. A refresher course is planned for next year on the basis of the needs expressed by the workers. The training, written in French and translated into Armenian, has been made available in the two languages on the e-learning (distance learning) platform of the KASA Association, which is based in Lausanne and has been active in Armenia for 20 years (pdf of the slide show ).By next year, videos of professional acts, such as hygienic care in bed, will be produced and integrated into the e-learning proposal. A further step will be the training of a distance learning manager so that the course can be accessible from all regions of Armenia. |
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In parallel, contacts were developed with various organisations, which made it possible to envisage the opening of the service by mid-September. First of all, the Swiss Red Cross, which is carrying out training with the Armenian Red Cross for nurses, who have already graduated, in home care. This training, exclusively for intervention in urban environments, is taking place in Vanadzor and Gumri (the capital of the region where Maralik is located). Several meetings, both in Switzerland and in Armenia, made it possible to verify the coherence and complementarity of the 2 projects. The training and intervention in rural areas, proposed by AAAA, will make it possible to evaluate a response to the needs of the elderly in a different context from the city. The Red Cross has proposed to evaluate and possibly certify the training and service implemented by AAAA next spring, and probably to take over the management of the service in Maralik from January 2020. This will ensure its continuation. |
| Excellent cooperation has also been established with the Ministry of Social Security, the director of the Pyunig Centre (a day care centre for the handicapped, which has an antenna in Maralik), among others, and AAAA has participated with other NGOs in the creation of a network for the promotion of the rights of the elderly. | |
| During April and May of this year, training took place for 11 enthusiastic workers, which lasted four weeks and ended with a practical examination, which all participants passed. In spite of a number of technical problems (electricity outage during the theory course or water outage during practice), the training was a success. |  |
| During this period, the structure of the home care service, which will start in September, was also specified: AAAA (an association based in Switzerland) will take on the role of General Management, with the task of defining the general framework and strategic lines and ensuring the financing of the project. | |
 
Ruzanna Baloyan Anna Ounoupoghlian |
The management of logistics is mandated to KASA’s Armenian office, which will manage the entire administrative and legal dimension (labour contracts, insurance, etc.) for AAAA. Anna Ounoupoghlian (a co-worker at the KASA centre in Gumri) takes over the operational management of the project, while Rouzanna Baloyan will continue to ensure translations. |
| Mrs. Rouzanna Harutunyan, an official of the Ministry of Social Security working in Maralik, will provide operational leadership on her time. |  |
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Armine Gmür, a psychologist and psychoanalyst from Gumri, is responsible for project supervision. |
The service will start its activities, as already mentioned, from mid-September with 2 women workers. Further recruitment of staff will depend on requests for intervention and financial availability. There are already 10 requests for action pending.
The question of funding remains open. The AAAA committee envisages 2 possibilities:
sponsorship, which consists of the commitment of a fixed monthly payment, even minimal, until December 2019, aimed at covering the salary of the workers and the expenses for the material necessary for the operation of the service, allowing AAAA to foresee the hiring of staff,
or unspecified payments, which will allow AAAA to cover all other expenses necessary for the operation of the project, i.e. management expenses in Armenia: salary of the operations manager, translator, etc.
Contributions (with the possible mention of “Padrinato”) can be made to CCP 69-88550-7, made out to Associazione Assistenza Anziani Armenia Coldrerio, IBAN CH 62 0900 0000 6908 8550 7.
This text was published in “L’Informatore” of 9 June 2017
