Selling Newspapers to Survive

This is the very sad story of a man and family who live in poverty.

Every day Karen’s three children look at their father’s pale face to guess whether he has been able to sell newspapers to get money. In case he hasn’t been lucky enough they will have to go to bed hungry.

“I work in a news-stall near a cinema. But as nowadays people don’t seem to be fond of reading I have to wander in the streets and visit buildings asking the residents to buy at least weekly newspapers and crosswords”, tells Karen Serobyan.

After the proclamation of the independence, the Serobyans sold the furniture, and now they have only a table with four chairs. “I don’t care about it; one day my son will grow up and buy everything for us. The furniture could hardly warm us but the sum we got from its sale fed us for some time”, says Karen.

“We couldn’t afford fuel this winter. Neither did we have gas. On the other hand, the electricity charge is too high. The temperature was below zero inside the flat in winter. We have put a fire-wood in one of the rooms where the temperature hardly reaches 10. We burn clothes, wood picked, bags and shoes”.

As you read in your warm home and read this entry, try to think about those who are less fortunate. Armenia's independence has surely created mountains of wealth, but it has also wiped out a certain class of workers who are unable to compete in the modern society.

I find myself thinking how we can help them and the many others in Yerevan and the villages. How? Do we just send them aid? Aid runs out and then there is the need for some more, whether food, clothes, or fuel. Obviously that would help out many people, but what we need is for some entrepreneur to establish a means of utilizing these people's skills and put them back into the labor market. That way, they could afford their own food, their own clothes, and their own fuel, and their kids wouldn't have to go to bed hungry every night.

Source: A1+