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Background
In the 1920s Stalin dislocated part of Eastern Armenia (Nagorno Karabagh) relegating it, and its people to Azerbaijan. With the dissolution of the USSR Azerbaijan began the ethnic cleansing of 15,000 Armenians living in this enclave.
The resulting conflict with Azerbaijan occurred during 1991 and 1994. Although this ended in a cease-fire agreement, to date there is no formal peace treaty and currently a trade blockade has been imposed by Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Economic growth is impeded and over half the population live below the poverty line. After years of war the humanitarian situation is particularly serious in Nagorno-Karabagh. However, most major aid organisations have been denied access to the territory and UN organisations have refused to provide assistance there.
HART and Nagorno-Karabakh
Baroness Cox has visited Nagorno-Karabakh since 1991. Today HART is working in Nagorno-Karabakh to support a Rehabilitation centre which gives treatment to people with disabilities, originally for those wounded in the war; more recently for people with a wide range of problems from children with cerebral palsy to elderly people suffering from strokes.
War and Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation and physiotherapy were unknown concepts in the former Soviet Union. The plight of children born with cerebral palsy, poliomyelitis and spin bifida was pitiful. Unable to make a meaningful contribution to ‘society’ these children were consigned to a bare existence on the fringe of society, reliant on charity. Until the advent of the Centre, even pressure sores were regarded as incurable and many patients died as a lack of treatment. People who became disabled or maimed by war injuries were consigned to institutions and simply ‘warehoused’, dying from pressure sores and infections.
Life expectancy, even for a previously fit young adult who became paralysed from the waist downwards due to a spinal cord injury, would be typically about 2 years: death would result from pressure sores which would become gangrenous and/or from respiratory or urinary tract infections.
Following the war, Baroness Cox sought advice from local leadership on the priority for humanitarian assistance. She was asked to establish a Rehabilitation Centre. It was clear the Armenians of Karabakh wanted a better provision for the survivors of war.
Hart and the Rehabilitation Centre, Nagorno-Karabakh
“The Lady Cox Rehabilitation Centre” in Stepanakert, capital city of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, is the only example of its kind in the whole country. It was founded by Baroness Cox and opened on 23rd September 1998 after identifying the need for treatment facilities for young soldiers with spinal injuries, and children born with disabilities.
The facility is housed in a former school building, badly damaged during the war. The building has been extended to create ten rooms for in-patients and a suite of rooms for Sport, Art (Painting, Woodwork, Macrame and Ceramic) classes and Computer training facilities. Additionally there is a state of the art Hydrotherapy pool.
 In 2008 a Day Care Centre for very young children was established. Through the Day Care Centre children who have disabilities and special needs can be cared for alongside other children. This development is path-breaking both in the quality and range of therapies available for very young children as well as for breaking the traditional Soviet taboo against including children with disabilities with those without.
In addition 2008 saw the refurbishment of the bath and toilet facilities for the disabled.
Thanks to the dedicated work of the visionary Director of the Rehabilitation centre, Vardan Tadevosyan and his team of Rehabilitation Therapist nurses, supplemented by teaching staff; the Rehabilitation centre is now recognised internationally as a Centre of Excellence.
In 2008 the centre celebrated its 10th anniversary. As part of the celebrations the Centre was formally renamed as “The Lady Cox Rehabilitation Centre - in recognition of her devoted support for the disabled of Karabakh” as well as holding an all-day conference discussing nine different therapies practiced within the centre with participants from several different countries.
In the second year of its existence (2000) the centre ministered to 1 in-patient with spinal injuries, 72 out-patients, 20 home patients, and 38 speech-therapy patients. In 2006 the centre treated 74 in-patients (11 of them under 18), 93 outpatients (54 of them under 18 years old) and 54 home-visit patients (22 of them over 65 years old).
In 2008 the centre has ministered to 99 in-patients (including those with cerebral palsy, strokes, and muscular-dystrophy as well as amputation and spinal injuries), 76 out-patients, 60 home-patients, 21 speech-therapy and 52 patients with mental health problems.
In all, over 10 years, 1095 patients have benefited from physical therapy, 307 from the new Hydrotherapy Unit, 416 from speech therapy and 494 received some form of psychological care.
Financial Facts and Figures
HART and HART related donors including the Ahmanson family, AGBU, The Canning Trust, Edward Steferyan and George Vartparonian, have sponsored the state-of-the-art Hydrotherapy pool, refurbished kitchens and the development of the child-care facilities.
In 2008 (figures sourced on 15th November 2008) HART gave: £29,000 to the rehabilitation centre in Nagorno Karabagh, Armenia.
HART, Nagorno Karabagh and the future
The financial support which HART provides complements Government support for the running costs and building developments. HART ensures greater flexibility, and, of immense importance, reliability in future planning.
It is HART’s intention to support the centre and its Director, Vardan Tadevosyan, in achieving their future plans and therefore to seek financial support for the following:
Construction of a new department for the Rehabilitation treatment of BabiesCompletion of the Centre’s interior renovationDevelopment of sports facilities and training for disabled people in KarabakhExpansion of home visits project in order to reach a greater percentage of the housebound disabled people throughout Karabakh
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