In the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s attack on Artsakh in September 2023, Sona Kocharyan, a documentary film director and journalist, found herself not just witnessing but actively responding to the critical gaps in humanitarian aid for displaced families. Thanks to her role as a videojournalism tutor in Stepanakert from 2021-2022, Sona formed a profound connection with her students in Artsakh, a bond that would lead her to an unexpected mission.
Immediately after the attacks began, Sona and her colleague Armen Sargsyan contacted their former students. The initial days were marked by uncertainty, stress, and a scramble for information.
“That period was one of the most stressful for me,” Sona said. “We had students that we couldn’t establish contact with for 4-5 days.”
Thankfully, all of her students were accounted for. In an agonizing week, they joined the ranks of over 100,000 residents of Artsakh who were forcibly displaced from their homes and had trickled into Armenia in a jarring mass exodus.
“I met with my students in Yerevan to try and understand what their immediate needs were. When I realized how much had to be done, I spontaneously began fundraising. At the time, I didn’t have any specific goals. There were so many issues that needed to be solved, that I knew I just needed to help people,” recalled Sona.
She had been among those who flocked to the Syunik Region to document the unfolding events. Her filmmaker’s eye soon picked up on the lack of clear instructions from the government on the registration process, which led to haphazard placements of families across Armenia. When speaking with the volunteers on the ground, she learned of many examples of families being torn apart by the system.
“Let’s say there are two families that are related, cousins for example, and they want to be placed in the same town or city or even region,” Sona explained, “their wishes weren’t taken into consideration at all, one could be sent to the Syunik Region, the other to Kotayk.”
She believed that there was a heavy reliance on organizations like the Red Cross and a few international institutions, with a lack of effective coordination from Armenia’s government.
Seeing the slow and bureaucratic pace in which the government worked, and feeling a strong sense of responsibility toward her students, Sona was motivated to take quick action. She immediately recognized one significant gap—the lack of beds to sleep on.
Her hunt for beds began on the internet. And her fundraising efforts, initially driven by a desire to address her students’ needs, took an unexpected turn. Soon, her name was spreading online as a person attempting to support families from Artsakh, and Sona found herself entangled in what was a much larger humanitarian issue.
“I began receiving messages from so many people, all of them asking for beds,” said Sona, sharing how the scale of the crisis quickly became overwhelming.
The seed of doubt regarding the efficiency of government efforts grew with the mounting messages she began to receive from displaced families seeking help.
“I remember getting frustrated and screenshotting the messages that I was receiving, posting them on my social media and tagging the Ministry of Social Affairs, asking how they are planning to solve these people’s problems,” Sona said.
The response from the Ministry was evasive, claiming they were dealing with housing but that they could not provide concrete statistics.
“I understood then, that there was no point in trying to reach out to them anymore,” she said.
Instead, she started receiving long-term support from willing volunteers, though she admitted that the process of finding volunteers was not an easy one. While searching for beds for her students, Sona discovered an institution with over 50 unused beds—a resource that could have easily been tapped into by the government.
Sona and her group of dedicated volunteers have so far been able to deliver approximately 80 beds to displaced families from Artsakh, with 20 more on the way, thanks to the outpouring of support on their fundraising platform.
According to Sona, there are people who have the time and the resources to support those from Artsakh, but they don’t know where to invest their time. She views this to be another example of the lack of coordination from governmental bodies.
“Instead of rejecting my questions and taking a defensive stance, the ministry spokesperson could have asked more about my availability, what I’ve done so far, how to collaborate, or who to collaborate with,” said Sona.
CivilNet reached out to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs regarding this issue. The ministry replied that in September 2023, they built a platform, called the Social Support Services Map, that serves the purpose of pooling the resources of international structures, NGOs, and social initiatives.
“The data collected is then shared with the Ministry, regional governorates, and local self-government bodies, enabling effective coordination and utilization of the gathered resources based on specific needs,” they noted in the response.
Feeling weary from burnout, Sona understood that she needed to find a more sustainable approach to her efforts. Her solution was to employ a displaced man from Artsakh, using money she received from fundraising, and provide him with the tools he needed to build beds from scratch. She aimed to not only create employment but also ensure a more affordable and sustainable solution.
The question remains if she will apply to government bodies for facilitated coordination, or if she will continue carrying out this mission on her own. The team will continue their work until the end of December but are unclear about the long-term future of their activities.
The post Filling the gaps in humanitarian aid, bed by bed appeared first on CIVILNET.