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If the political forces need money to carry out their election campaigns eyeing the post of Yerevan mayor or Yerevan City Council membership as a final goal, there many people in Armenia who are in need of money to meet their daily needs. Today, money is needed to treat or operate the wounded soldiers and military disabled persons or to provide them with medication.

At the extent with which people help wounded soldiers, they never support any structure or a political force, Director of the Support for Wounded Soldiers and Military Disabled Persons NGO Haykuhi Minasyan told Panorama.am.

She claims the part of society aware of their activity do their best to help the wounded servicemen. Some sacrifice their animals for soldiers or treat them with fruits and vegetables, others put their handmade items up for auction to donate the revenues, while directors offer the proceeds from the screening of their films to them.

“In other words, the sector of the society that is aware of our wounded boys is definitely willing to have their input into their assistance. We have Mrs. Margarita, a pensioner, who, together with her husband, transfers 25,000 drams from their monthly pension to our organization,” she said.

“The Armenian people really appreciate the wounded boys the way they never value any other political force or structure. The attention and love that our wounded boys get from our people is simply enviable,” she says.

The only problem, according to Minasyan, is the public simply has no idea that wounded soldiers, in some cases, are neglected by the state. “This means no one imagines that there are surgeries which wounded soldiers or the military disabled are to pay for or there is medication that they are to buy,” she stressed.

“Little information is available on the number and conditions of wounded soldiers. The majority thinks they only comprise the wounded boys of the 2016 April war. However, Armenia has some 9,000 military disapled persons, with April heroes making a little part of them.”

Asked to provide exact figures on the amount of money transferred to them in a certain period as an assistance to the wounded soldiers, she said nearly 60-70 million drams has been transferred to her personal account alone since 2014, with some 2-3 million drams raised monthly for medication and other expenses.

“There are many people who have given the money to a soldier in need rather than transferring it through us,” she added.

She stressed the rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers in one of the wings of Yerevan’s Heratsi Medical Complex has been built through donations, which was made possible due to the calls for financial assistance by various state structures.