Opinion: If there is a threat to a child's life, one can think about separating the child from the family (video)
“Only in very exceptional cases, for example, when there is a threat to a child’s life, safety and health, can we think of separating the child from his/her family. In all other cases, a child’s care can be arranged in the family,” Knarik Garanfilyan, President of “Family and Community” NGO, said during the programme “On Paper and in Reality.” Parents in Armenia are forced to take their children to boarding schools because of poverty and other social problems. However, specialists believe that children should live in families, and boarding schools should be replaced by day care centres. “The funds that the state spends on boarding schools should be given to families,” says Knarik Garanfilyan. She says we need to help and strengthen families so that they will be able to take care of their own children. Lusine Simonyan, Director of “Child Development Foundation,” says the 42-percent child poverty rate in Armenia speaks to serious problems in the country. She says it is necessary to educate children as future citizens of their country from an early age and they will become for the state taxpayers, rather than beneficiaries.
