Supporting Internally Displaced Populations in Armenia
Published: Nov 23, 2022 Reading time: 2 minutes
People in Need is always on the frontier, reacting immediately to the most pressing needs of the people affected by the violence. With funding from the Start Network, PIN–within the ‘Emergency Response for Internal Displaced Populations in Armenia’ project–assisted the most vulnerable and conflict-affected people and border communities. Beneficiaries of the project were selected in cooperation with local authorities. ACTED leads the project in consortium with PIN and Mission Armenia.
Displacement and suffering continue to haunt people living on the frontier in Armenia. People were not even halfway from recovering after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 2020; tens of thousands of displaced, homeless, and wounded people were plunged further into turmoil when Azerbaijani aggression erupted exactly two years later, in September 2022. This time Azerbaijan initiated a large-scale attack on the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia, inflicting heavy casualties and suffering on the three regions of Armenia: Syunik, Vayots Dzor and Gegharkunik.
To support people in the conflict-affected regions, PIN provided care kits to 100 mothers of newborn babies in selected areas; these kits contained essential items such as bedding, towels, clothes, diapers, etc. Another 300 families in Syunik enlarged communities received hygiene kits with packs of washing powder, bottles of shampoo, disinfectant liquids, personal hygiene items, etc.
Communities living on the border require constant preparedness for emergencies. With this in mind, PIN provides people and health facilities with First Aid kits to ensure long-term effects. 300 beneficiaries who had previously received First Aid training from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), among them school and kindergarten teachers, representatives of local authorities and social services, and others, were provided First Aid kits, including medical tools and medicine. In addition, ten health facilities in the most vulnerable bordering settlements received specialised medical kits equipped for full-scale assistance in case of renewed attacks.
Supporting IDPs in Armenia
Such assistance to people who have experienced all the horrors of war provides them with the goods they desperately need and gives them the most essential feeling of being not alone, being heard and supported. Due to such support, they continue to hope, work, and create in pursuit of a better future.
Thanks to the funds from the START Network, under the "Emergency Response for Internal Displaced Populations in Armenia" project, PIN is helping people in the Syunik region affected by the Azerbaijan aggression. The project is led by ACTED in consortium with PIN and Mission Armenia and is specialising in the Vayots Dzor, Gegharkunik, and Syunik regions of Armenia.
