Armenia | Armenia Community Action and Linkages for Legal Socialization | 9 Mar 2015

Success
On March 9, within the AM CALLS project, the “Offenders' Rehabilitation Center” State Non-Commercial Organization of the RA Ministry of Justice (MoJ) organized an event called “Motherhood and Childhood” at the Abovyan penitentiary where female convicts carry out their sentence. During the event, over ten children arrived to the penitentiary from different regions of Armenia to meet their mothers and celebrate International Women’s Day with their mothers.

Overview
The “Offenders' Rehabilitation Center” effectively works with children of female convicts by strengthening bonds between the parents and their children. With the AM CALLS grant, an event called “Motherhood and Childhood” was organized at the Abovyan Penitentiary. With the support of the staff from the organization, over ten children arrived to the penitentiary from different regions of Armenia to meet their mothers and spend some time with them.

During the event they were exposed to the handiwork of their mothers, such as pottery and embroidery. Because March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day, the children received cards with holiday wishes, prepared by their mothers, as well as presents, sweets and supplies. By the end of the event the women performed their favorite songs they had rehearsed earlier in preparation of this event.

Both mothers and their children were very excited. They expressed their gratitude to the organizers of the event and hope that similar events will be organized more often.

“I was avoiding meeting my child because I had some fear that he would feel ashamed of his mom. Now thanks to the project staff, the barrier has been removed and I feel that nothing has changed. He still loves me. I will do my best to meet with him as often as possible”.