Female lifesavers - Narine Stapanyan
Her sole mission is to save lives on call from the air, in the water and on the ground. Narine Stepanyan, a programmer and financier by profession, says it just happened she decided to become a search and rescue worker and the prospects of her promising profession didn't kept her from making up her mind.
Narine has been working in the ministry of emergency situations for around 9 years. Initially, she was tasked with mostly administrative duties, then she decided to join the special task unit, - and never doubted her choice.
The female rescuer has lost count of the number of people she saved and provided fist assistance with her team members as she got confused with statistics just after the first year of her new profession. Suicides and road accidents especially with fatal outcomes are the hardest side of her job. She tries not to focus much. In an interview with Panorama.am, she opened up the time of shift rotation is the most difficult as she sums up the past day and sometimes lets her feelings and tears go. She never voices difficulties and shares emotions to the parents who had long opposed her decision to become a rescuer.
"The simple idea you are saving people worth it all. Our mission is the cost of human life. It has been quite hard in the first months, yet you are obliged to leave emotions, feelings as you have no right for the opposite. While embarking on a special mission, you just cannot afford to get distracted," Narine says.
Her job, however, has a bright side as well. She recalled a hilarious incident when they responded to call by elderly women on a snake found in the bathroom, yet they discovered a garden hose.
During her service she discovered women are physiologically more stable and careful than men. Male rescuers are majority in the team and Narine is the only woman in the shift. However, she always feels the help and assistance of her colleagues during risky tasks and operations requiring physical strength.
At early ages, Narine dreamed of becoming a singer. Her favorite serials were 9-1-1 TV series about daily operations of first responders. "I was so engaged with the film that imagined myself in certain episodes. I never thought that dream would ever come true," says the women rescuer.