The Gyumri Rehabilitation Center is the only center in Shirak currently providing rehabilitation services to wounded soldiers. Since the 2020 Artsakh War, however, there are more wounded soldiers than the center has the capacity to serve. That’s why Emili Aregak Center, also located in Gyumri, decided to come up with a project to share the burden with the Gyumri Center.

Emili Aregak is a therapeutic support and development center for kids with special needs and their families, which is run by the Caritas Aregak Foundation, an organization devoted to supporting young people with disabilities.

The mission of the Emili Aregak Center is to help young people with disabilities to live more healthy, independent and integrated lives through a range of therapies and socialization activities, as well as training and employment initiatives for young adults. The center serves more than 120 mostly low-income beneficiaries each month, and also provides psychosocial support services to parents, all free of charge.

While serving in the 2020 Artsakh War, Caritas Aregak Foundation Physiotherapist Ashot Shahinyan witnessed the huge physical toll taken on his fellow soldiers. Currently, one of the biggest challenges facing wounded and disabled veterans is the restriction of their daily activities and independence. Because of his expertise in rehabilitative therapy and massage, Mr. Shahinyan wanted to help Shirak-area soldiers to recover and rehabilitate.

The Emili Aregak Center has the space and the expertise to provide sociorehabilitative care to physically and psychologically wounded servicemen. However, because the center serves children with special needs it does not have all the necessary equipment to work with adults and, more specifically, to rehabilitate the kinds of physical injuries facing our target group of wounded soldiers.

Caritas Aregak Foundation will cover the salaries for the specialists who will work with these soldiers, and Ayo! wants to join this extremely important initiative in order to provide funding for the following pieces of equipment:

• Stationary bike

  
  

• Physiotherapy staircase

  
  

• Balance board

  
  

• Yoga mats

  
  

• Walker

  
  

• Treadmill

  
  

• Hand weights

  
  

• Training bench

  
  

• Swedish ladder

  
  

• Hand splint

Once they’ve secured these available resources, the center will be able to provide professional physical rehabilitation services to nearly 40 disabled veterans in the local communities of the Shirak Region.

The center will provide assistance to the beneficiaries six days a week with each individual session lasting an average of 30-40 minutes. In the case of intensive (daily) sessions, the rehabilitation course will be comprised of about 20 sessions. Based on ongoing assessments, as needed, the beneficiary will continue to receive support according to the specialist’s guidelines and conclusion.