"I am a girl from Yerevan,"- tells 85-year-old Lida Simonyan, who now lives in Ashtarak. She spent her childhood in the heart of the capital, on Spandaryan Street (now Arami). After finishing technical school, she worked in the Arzni sanatorium.
- Yerevan was a happy, friendly city. Then our house was destroyed, I got an apartment in Ashtarak and we moved there, Lida Simonyan remembers.
She lost 3 brothers, and her husband, but the most terrible was the loss of 3 children who died one after the other at school age because of a serious illness.
Everyone talked about Grandma Lida as someone who always came to help, but about 10 years ago she fell, had difficulty walking, and now needs help herself.
Sometimes her brother's children visit her. The young volunteers of the Ashtarak branch of the Armenian Red Cross Society are also trying to ease her loneliness.
- Even in my old age, I helped everyone until I was healthy. "It is very difficult to live alone,"- says grandmother Lida.
Within the framework of the "Winter Aid" project implemented with the support of the Swiss Red Cross, 490 single elderly people in Gegharkunik, Aragatsotn, Ararat, Armavir, Kotayk, Tavush, and Syunik receive food every month, hygiene items every quarter, and volunteers visit them every week and celebrate the holidays together.
