Officials call on Nagorno-Karabakh residents to help older persons at boarding house

The authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh provide care for residents of a boarding house in Stepanakert, but the older people feel separated from society and need communication and leisure.

13,807 people over the age of 63 live in Nagorno-Karabakh, and 245 people are covered by the state care and guardianship programme, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has learned from Samvel Israelyan, the chief of the Social Assistance and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, and Migration. According to the official, several state programmes for pensioners are being implemented in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On October 1, on the occasion of International Day of Older Persons, a gala concert was held at the boarding house in Stepanakert.

According to Amest Suleimanyan, the deputy director of the Stepanakert boarding house, the residents of the institution lack only various leisure activities.

"It can be lessons of cutting and sewing, knitting, board games ... People are idle for whole days," the deputy director noted.

Samvel Israelyan called on NGOs to help solving the problem.

The residents of the boarding house say that the staff is attentive, the care is good, but they are bored.

"I was a good bricklayer, and I can work as a carpenter. I could do something or teach other crafts," said pensioner and widower Borik Pogosyan.