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With the Hope of Thirty-Five-Lari Allowance

May 18, 2007

 

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When you turn to the Saakadze Street in Akhaltsikhe you immediately notice a dismantled car and a lot of children around it. You will think they help the car-repairer just for fun. But you are mistaken, the repairer is Mkhitar Kerofian and the boys are his sons. The couple, Lala and Mkhitar Kerofian, has nine children. The monthly income of the family is too little. 

There are eleven members in their family: nine children, a husband and a wife and seventy-five-year-old grandmother, Karanina.

Elder daughter of the Kerofians, Gaiane, is sixteen and the youngest son Gevork is six-year-old. The difference between the children’s ages is only one year.

Lala is thirty-five and her husband is thirty-eight. They never imagined having so many children before they got married.

“We thought in other way in the past. I was young and had different opinion about the life. Now I think that I must have as many children as the God gives me,” said Mkhitari. “Everything will happen according to the Almighty’s will,” Lala agreed with her husband.

Eight children go to Akhaltsikhe Public School # 3. It is too difficult to buy school bags for all of them.

“The price of a normal school-bag is 15 lari and I have to buy eight of them. In addition to that I must buy books too. We cannot leave our children illiterate. We can cope without proper clothes but education is necessary,” said Lala.

The family of Kerofians receives 35 lari as an allowance for their nine children.

“The allowance amounts less than five lari for each child. We are young people and can somehow manage to earn our living. Nobody will say we are hungry but if the government assisted us, we would be much happier. Since our country is considered to be a member of European Union, we should have as large allowances as similar families have in Europe. Something should be done too. 35 lari is too little money!” said the head of the family.

Mkhitari is a car-repairer however he does not have a work-shop and works in the street. Lala is unemployed.

“There is no job for me. However, if there is any, I would not be able to go and work; I am cooking dinner the whole day,” Lala is complaining. “We need at least ten loaves of bread a day,” she added in a smile.

Everybody has his/her duty in the family. Boys help their father when they get home after school. The girls help their mother in the house.

The children do not want to have many children themselves. “I think I will not have more than two children!” Gaiane said categorically.

Although the family has a small plot they have not cultivated it yet. “The plot is close to the river. The river has risen and flooded our plot. We are waiting when it gets dry and then we will plant something there,” said Lala.


Gulo Kokhodze, Akhaltsikhe

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