Readers' comments

• EyeCare: Abovian prison inmates get a visit from eye specialists on World Sight Day

I am very pleased and happy to hear and read stories like thit. Stories like this are so important for our counrty and society. We have to begin to treat WELL an HUMANLY: - people in prison:- -people in army; - -people who belong to national and sexual minority; - elderly and disabled people;- socially isolated and poor people;and others. Because with ALL these people we are one. It is...

Read commented Article

Post a comment

Read all 1 comments

Comments are welcomed and encouraged. However, comments not pertaining to the topic or containing slander or offensive language will be deleted. You have to be registered to be able leave your comment. Sign in or Register now for free.

Zoya Sargsyan, the oldest of prisoners at the penitentiary for women in Abovyan, needed glasses in the past four months after falling down injuring her arm and breaking her glasses.

On World Sight Day, October 8, which this year is dedicated to gender and eye health, the Armenian EyeCare Project (AECP) charitable foundation gave out long-awaited gifts.

Another 102 imprisoned women passed medical checkups and received corresponding prescriptions when AECP medical team visited the prison in Abovian, some 20 kilometres to the northeast of capital Yerevan.

Founded by Armenian-American ophthalmologist Roger Ohanesian, MD in 1992, the Armenian EyeCare Project is a U.S.-based charity organization dedicated to eliminating preventable blindness in Armenia.

Since then, it has operated in Armenia providing high quality eye care, conducting medical education, retraining and eye care awareness projects, etc.

In 2003, the AECP launched the seven-year national initiative Bringing Sight to Armenian Eyes, through which 240,000 people were screened by AECP specialists in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. The AECP state-of-the-art Mobile Eye Hospital travels throughout Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh to provide high quality eye care in the regions. More than 10,000 people have received surgery and laser treatment in their districts.

And last year visits were made to different penitentiaries, with more than 1,000 prisoners examined and 782 pairs of spectacles given out.
This year, the AECP has decided to mark the World Sight Day in a penitentiary for women, since nearly two-thirds of the world’s 45 million blind people and 269 million visually impaired people are women and girls.

“Since people in penitentiaries are in even worse conditions, it is very important to reach out to them in the first place,” said AECP Country Director Nune Yeghiazaryan.

As part of this effort, the AECP team examined about 200 women and girls in the Abovian penitentiary, prescribed appropriate medical treatment, provided eye glasses and delivered a special presentation for the imprisoned on basic eye diseases and their symptoms. In addition, public education brochures on eye diseases and eye care hygiene were distributed.


The chief ophthalmologist of Armenia, Alexander Malayan, has conducted examinations at different penitentiaries and is aware that very serious eye problems are not common in prisons, but such problems as nearsightedness and farsightedness are.

According to deputy warden of the penitentiary Arayik Jamalyan, annually their establishment is visited by some five or six such charity organizations, but prisoners mainly receive treatment from the penitentiary’s medical staff.

Head of the Medical Aid Department at the penitentiary Samvel Poghosyan says that 30 percent of prisoners regularly receive medical treatment, of whom only 3 percent have eyesight problems.

Inmate Zoya Sargsyan, 72, is blind in one eye and needs a surgery on the other. Doctor Malayan has offered surgery, but the woman refuses to undergo this surgery: “It’s now time to die for me. What surgery?”
Sargsyan herself says she was preparing to become a surgeon when her future husband abducted her (a custom still not obsolete in Caucasus cultures) when she was only 20. She says that as a man of the underworld, her husband also involved her in these criminal circles, which led to her current, fourth, lockup. The last lengthy term she got still in Soviet times was for drug dealing.

“I will be set free only on March 22, 2013. I’ll enjoy free life for some three months and then will leave this world with a light heart,” says Sargsyan, who has no family or relative across the prison bars.
Prisoners at the Abovian penitentiary are aged 20-72, but mainly there are middle-aged women who appear in jail for committing crimes involving trafficking and corruption.

Larisa Khachatryan, 55, jailed on a corruption-related guilty verdict, still has five years ahead of her until she gets released. But she has found a pleasant occupation for herself in prison – she writes documental essays.

“I already have four published books. I’ve written about life, love, I am going to write also the fifth book, this time already about prison life,” says Khachatryan.

Within the framework of the World Sight Day 2009, the AECP state-of-the-art Mobile Eye Hospital commenced operations in Aragatsotn marz on October 6. The AECP medical group will examine about 60-80 patients per day and will remain in the marz until October 26.