Stepanakert: Anna Sargsyan Depends on Mother’s Garden to Feed Her Kids
Posted on July. 29. 2023
HETQ – Store shelves in the Artsakh capital Stepanakert are empty.
Many stores have simply closed since there’s nothing left to sell. Residents can only purchase bread at the city’s bakeries. The lines are long.
The scarcity of basic staples is due to the ongoing seven-month Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin Corridor. People are surviving on food they purchased before the closure. Baku has even stopped the Red Cross from shipping humanitarian aid to Artsakh. Patients can no longer travel to Armenia for medical treatment.
Anna Sargsyan, a thirty-one-year-old single mother, used to buy certain items with the state assistance payments she received for her two young kids. Even if she found work, she couldn’t because she must stay home to care for them.
“My mother has a small garden in Askeran and periodically brings us potatoes and beans. There’s nothing in the stores, not even cooking oil. I use pork fat my mom gave us to cook meals,” says Mrs. Sargsyan.
Sargsyan and her sister take turns watching the other’s children. It’s the only way they can shop for bread. Bakeries require each to show up for their permitted allowance.
Sargsyan is worried that she will not be able to wash the family’s clothes once the laundry detergent she bought five days ago is used up. They only have a two-day supply of sugar.