Participants of a procession in Yerevan drew attention of the residents of the capital to the problems of the blind

On November, 13, a procession under the slogan "You need not see, you should just look" organized by non-governmental organization "The Need for Public Information and Knowledge" and scientific and cultural organization "Forte" timed to the International Day of the Blind passed off in the capital of Armenia.

Anush Torchyan, organizer of the action, member of public scientific and cultural organization of disabled persons, said that the participants first of all called for the drivers to be attentive.

"So far as there are no conditions for safety of the blind in the roads, we call for everyone not to be indifferent and be attentive, especially to disabled persons and give way to them in the road", Anush said.

Anush Torchyan decided to organize such an action after an incident that happened to her disabled friends who were nearly run over by a car because of the driver's carelessness.

The participants of the action distributed to the by-passers paper glasses with a slogan "Open the eyes of your soul! I hate it!". "People liked our action, Torchyan said. - Some were certainly surprised but the majority got very much interested".

Norair Avanesyan, Head of public scientific and cultural organization "Forte", is sure that the action will motivate the people who have never meet and are out of contact with disabled persons to change their attitude towards them.

"Physical difference among us does not mean that we are different kinds of people", Avanesyan remarked.

Vardan Ovanesyan, representative of a non-governmental organization "Faith and Aid" thinks that one action cannot solve the problem. According to him, the community should continue the noble cause they started because the disabled people's position in Armenia is very poor.

"As of today, we can clearly see a good tendency to improvement of life conditions of disabled people in the sphere of their integration with the community, Vardan Ovanesyan considers. - Only our own recognition of the fact that they are the same kind of members of our society will help overcome all the problems in the attitude of both the disabled persons towards the able-bodied people and the society towards the disabled".

Aik Papikyan, member of "Forte" organization, became blind at the age of 15 as a result of aftereffects of flu. He says that a joint Armenian-Polish project is currently in process of implementation. Within its framework Polish coaches are training Armenian instructors who will later teach the blind people to walk with a special cane.

According to Papikyan, there is today no culture of communication with disabled persons. It is possibly caused by the fact that the disabled are too much isolated from the community and the rest of the people do not even know how to approach them. We should lead active life, just the same as people without physical problems, he considers.

Aik Papikyan graduated from the university specializing in history. He is member of several social organizations. "I wish to contribute into this very complicated cause, the young man explained. - People must realize that there is nothing special about us, we are just ordinary people. When I see that someone feels only pity for disabled persons without a wish to help them I may be hurt".

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" reported that as of November, 1, 2010, five per cent of the Armenian population were disabled. Over 180 thousand disabled persons who had problems with employment were registered in the country. The Ministry of Labour and non-governmental organizations arrived at a conclusion of the necessity of integration of the disabled with the community.