Where We Want To Go From Here

Twelve years after the earthquake and the collapse of the Soviet Union, donors are encouraged by the economic trends in Armenia and are turning their focus to private / public economic development and the development of legal and administrative reform. At the same time they continue to call for programmes of social protection and the defending of individual human rights. However grassroots conditions, especially in regions distant from Yerevan remain appalling and country wide, Armenians continue to migrate from the country in large numbers to look for a better life. Family Care continues to argue the need for emergency as well as longer term development which need to work consecutively.

Health
Family Care will continue to focus on the implementation of grassroots support which facilitates institutes and individuals in isolated regions to increase quality of service delivery, giving the fundamental basic conditions on which central reform policy can be realistically implemented.

Thus Family Care aims to:

1. Maintain contact with regions to which we have already given support and aim to link them into new activities which can aid their continued development.
2. Continue to work for funding for assistance to regions in need with poor health outcomes especially those which form part of the network of those regions already assisted
3. Intensify efforts in basic training by seeking funding for the upgrading of curriculum and the updating of skills in basic nurse and midwifery training schools.
4. Acting as a implementing body to support those working at policy level.

Priorities:

1) Upgrading of Giumry Central maternity Hospital
2) Upgrading curriculum and training skills at Giumry Midwifery school
3) Upgrading of Gavar maternity and its peripheral health facilities
4) Providing outreach services for the far N.Eastern region of Armenia to take health care to isolated rural villages.
5) Continuing support to regions assisted through training opportunities for staff overseas
6) Strengthening information systems which can provide optimal transfer times for women with emergency conditions.

Cultural / economic activities:

1. To develop cultural activities in the regions to a high quality level which can enable local people to become themselves instrumental in promoting their cultural heritage.
2. To further develop a local enterprise for families based at the Veratsnund Art School in the new villages of Spitak which will provide skills training and income for impoverished families.
3. To promote the work of artisans in Yerevan and link this to the work of Veratsnund through the development of an craft centre which through which overseas markets could be established.