Hope under Caucasian skies

Director of an Armenian NGO, Susanna Isajanyan tells how her experience of life in Russia inspired her campaign for equal rights and better access for disabled people throughout the Caucasus region

My hip bone was crushed during a forceps birth. As a child I found it hard to walk; at 22, I lost all mobility and went to Russia for surgery. The recovery process was slow and I was warned I’d always walk with walking aids but I persevered and now don’t need them.

As a child I felt ashamed of my disability but my six years in Russia changed the way I thought of myself. In Russia I was treated as an equal, went to discos, lived a normal life and realised that having a disability did not have to be debilitating.

Nothing much had changed in Armenia when I got back. People would still stare at me in the street and wonder how anyone with a disability dared go about in public. But Russia had empowered me and I felt that all disabled people should enjoy the equality that I knew was possible, so I started an NGO called Khariskh to fight for equality for everyone disabled in Syunik Marz.

I’d also shared a hospital room in Russia with people from all over the Soviet Union, including people from countries such as Azerbaijan with whom Armenia has always had a difficult relationship, and yet I found it was possible to form strong cross-border friendships. This also left a strong impression on me. So did my awareness of the fact that in the past, NGOs from across the Caucasus had met at conferences in Tbilisi, sharing experiences, talking about ideas, and building bonds.

It was this that led me to revive the trans-Caucasus conferences. And so Khariskh organised a trans-Caucasus conference for disabled people called “United in the Fight for a Brighter Future”. Participants came from Georgia and Armenia as well as Azerbaijan and included people with disabilities, other NGOs and government representatives.

During the conference, representatives gave presentations on the issues that people with disabilities currently face in their respective countries and the work that NGOs and individuals are doing to solve those problems.

A recurring theme was lack of accessibility. All over the former Soviet bloc, buildings and public transportation were constructed without any thought of how disabled people might have to use them. Most Armenian apartment buildings were built during the years of the Soviet Union and range from three to ten floors high. Few had lifts; most don’t even have ramps or handrails, and almost all have unnecessary steps that create additional barriers.

Khariskh hosted  a second trans-Caucasus conference  called “From Equal Rights to Equal Opportunities”, and this focussed  particularly on accessibility. In the city of Sisian where I work, we have already started to hold meetings with the mayor and city architect to discuss improvements in some of the larger stores in town. To emphasise the barrier that stairs can be, we’re planning to obtain wheelchairs and invite the public, as well as the mayor and other officials, to try and get around their own town in them.

I’ve faced many hardships in my struggle to become an NGO director in a society where people with disabilities are seen as second-class citizens, and where the role of women is relegated to the home. These challenges have only motivated me further to keep working towards making things better. Although there are still problems, and we’re still a long way from equality, things have improved. Now when I walk down the street people don’t stare at me; instead they ask me about my current projects.

• Susanna Isajanyan with Mari Chiba