Center Helps ‘Social Orphans’ Reclaim their Futures
When 14-year-old Sevinj’s parents divorced and subsequently remarried, she felt the negative effects immediately. Her family, originally from Kalbajar, Azerbaijan, became internally-displaced persons during the country’s conflict with Armenia.
After the divorce, she first lived with her mother, but experienced physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her new stepfather. Sevinj soon moved in with her poor grandparents, who were unable to provide her with adequate living conditions, and the love and care she needed. In effect, she became a social orphan.
Sevinj felt powerless, alone, embarrassed of her situation and frightened. Innately shy, Sevinj did not communicate easily with her peers and her education was neglected. Exclusion from school activities placed her at further risk, as her academic and social skills faltered.
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| Special trainings that teach life skills and self-advocacy skills to teens helped Sevinj to rebuild her self-confidence and interact more with her peers |
Being committed to helping children fill their highest potential by fully integrating into their community, the staff at the USAID-supported Goranboy Center enrolled Sevinj in a series of on-site trainings on life skills, children’s rights, and self-advocacy. Through her involvement in the Center’s extracurricular activities, Sevinj was exposed to a variety of new social and educational experiences.
However, the Center’s staff recognized Sevinj, indeed any child, would thrive to her maximum potential when surrounded by a healthy family environment. So, they initiated activities to reunite Sevinj with her mother by opening up communication between her mother and grandparents during home visits which led to a critical realization: Sevinj’s abusive stepfather had died. Committed to protecting children while preserving families, staff members also provided parenting education and specialized counseling to Sevinj’s mother, as reunification efforts progressed.
Elchin Ismailov, First Deputy Head of Goranboy EXCOM, Chairman of Commission on Minors, and member of Child Protection Network, assisted by reaching out to Sevinj’s grandparents during the negotiation process and obtaining their permission for the reunification.
Thanks to the Center’s intervention, Sevinj is living in a safe, permanent home environment with her mother. The trainings she received have helped Sevinj develop her academic capabilities and become more sociable with her peers. Together, skills-building activities, counselling, and family reunification have bolstered Sevinj’s emotional development and self-confidence, paving the way for a promising future.
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