-Mrs. Hakobyan, 2019 reaches to the end. How can you describe the year for the City of Smile and My Step foundations? What results were achieved?
-The year was quite full of events, we have carried out multiple actions in several directions. The My Step foundation had 3 million 425 thousand USD turnover within the year. Starting from its creation up to now the foundation had had 5 million USD turnover. I consider this a great result for the newly-established foundation. Among the key achievements I can mention the scholarship program. This year we carried out a lot of actions to reveal the professions which are important for our country and have a demand in the labor market. We held discussions with the employers, set our standards and after conducting major works we provided scholarships to 54 persons to study at the best universities abroad.
Among the implemented programs I would mention the Silk Note music festival held by the efforts of the My Step foundation which hosted world-renowned musicians, such as the Jamiroquai band, Parov Stelar band, etc. It was a great event in Yerevan with quite positive reactions and gratitude words. We attach importance to such kind of events from cultural, tourism development perspective.
The Ghost festival was also held, and again with positive reactions. It was quite successful and brought a new breath to the city. The festival was dedicated to the electronic music-lovers, the youth who were very thankful for holding such an event. We plan to hold these festivals annually. In addition, we also have funded various cultural events, the year was really very busy. We continued the poverty reduction program, and I want to note that the number of beneficiary families has increased. The funding to the Rehabilitation Center for Fatherland’s Defender continued.
We also covered all the expenses for the treatment of a total of 260 children and young people through the activities of the City of Smile foundation, and this is the number one achievement for us. The support chain is complete – treatment, medicines, psychological service, food four times in a day, training of doctors. We were also active in terms of organizing events especially for kids. These events make them happy, integrate them and change the public attitude towards these children. We reached to the point that many people apply to us to come up with an initiative that will inspire those kids. We are not alone in this mission.
We also have an achievement in the training of doctors, expansion of international ties. By the initiative of the foundation a program for developing and introducing children oncology guidelines is being implemented within the frames of which professional working groups have been formed, also involving famous foreign experts. As a result of the program we will have guidelines that will involve comprehensive information about the diagnosis, the treatment and future control, etc.
-You travel a lot, get acquainted with the treatment process of children suffering cancer in other countries. In your opinion, what is lacking in Armenia in this respect? What do you want or plan to add in our country?
-We are working to fill these gaps. There are many problems, starting from the attitude up to the financial, technical, building-related issues. For instance, we lack guesthouses to settle the families of these kids. Wherever I visited, all medical facilities for the children suffering cancer had guesthouses. This is mandatory, as children come from different countries, therefore there should be a place to stay for their families. This is directed for keeping the entirety of that family, creating household conditions. Our hospital is in a very good condition, but we seek to have a guesthouse for the parents of these kids. We plan to start the guesthouse designing works next year after which we will be able to launch fundraising for that concrete program because it will be quite costly and a big project. In addition, we will soon launch the renovation of the palliative care department. All preparation stages seem are over, and currently we are at a stage of signing a contract with the constructor. In other words, we work at all necessary directions, such as the training of doctors, improvement of conditions, integration and so on. I attach great importance to the implementation of prevention programs in the future stage. We still are unable to enter that field because there is a lot to do in this stage. But we hope that we will be able to reach a good result by uniting our efforts together with the state.
-We have many successful cases of treatment of children suffering cancer. But there are also cases when families facing such a problem seek to take to their kid abroad for treatment. In your opinion, what is the reason of such a mistrust towards our medicine and what are the future actions in this regard?
-There are many reasons for the distrust, there is also a so-called tradition. So what we do on this path? We intensify the international ties, the contacts with the b...
