People who use wheelchairs, walkers, canes, parents who go out for a walk with a baby in a stroller face the inconveniences of Yerevan every day.

This film is about the lack or unavailability of ramps, handrails, tactile tiles, difficult access to public transportation and many other similar problems that make Yerevan inconvenient for people with disabilities and parents using strollers.

Syuzanna and Ruzanna Aghababyans sisters are from Koghb, Tavush region. At the age of three, the twin sisters acquired physical disabilities, locomotor system problems, but did not stop moving forward. After graduating the school, the sisters were admitted tot he university and got higher education.

Sisters’ morning, as they note, starts like others’ morning, they hurry to work. Syuzanna and Ruzanna sisters work are “Bridge of Hope” NGO.

To the question, is it not difficult to work with children with disabilities, Suzanne answers: “No, having a disability myself, I always wanted to work with children with such problems. I can best understand them, their successes and difficulties, raise the issues.”

The sisters can almost always be seen together, often accompanied by their father, Gagik Aghababyan. Ruzanna says that once they decided to visit their neighbor without their parents, and thanks to their courage and helping each other, they were able to overcome the short but not very easy journey.

The sisters mention that they wouldn’t be so strong without their parents’ support.

In addition to work, the sisters also create in their free time, and in recent years they founded a family business with their father. They are engaged in wine production. Each of the sisters has their own role in the business: Suzanne deals with paperwork, Ruzanna with the company’s marketing and social pages management.

Author: Vera Sahakyan

On June 20, AGATE – Rights Defense Center for Women with Disabilities, within the framework of I Can Break the Stereotypes in My Community project, organized Disabilities and Media training in Ijevan.

During the training, the media representatives, journalists, cameramen, correspondents, and the students of the department of philology of YSU IB, improved their knowledge of gender equality and disability sensitive coverage.



What problems do people with disabilities face in Tavush? What are the roots of those problems? What are the ways to solve them? The Director of the Ijevan Branch of Bridge of Hope NGO Armine Nersisyan, member of the Advocacy Group of the Bridge of Hope NGO Tatevik Minasyan, Program Coordinator of EPF Northern Branch Narek Varshamyan and Head of the Dilijan Community Center Armine Hovhannisyan spoke about the above-mentioned questions during our discussion.