Lucik’s Story
Lucik Yeritsyan lives with her family in a house on the outskirts of Artsvaberd, a small village in the Tavush marz.  The house has one living room, one bedroom, a kitchen and a corridor where Lucik lives.  The wooden stove is in the corridor next to Lucik’s bed.

In the one-bedroom house- with a small orchard, a vegetable plot and a few sheep and hens, eight other people live with Lucik.  They include her husband, Armen; son and daughter-in-law Ashot and Maro; and five grandchildren- age five through 16.

No one in the family is employed.  They live off their land and Lucik and Armen’s pension- the equivalent of about eight dollars a month. While continuing economic hardship has left more than 50 percent of Armenians poverty-stricken and without access to health care, according to the Armenian Paros Scale for poverty, the Yeritsyan families are not among them- just as 80 percent of their village is not. Tavush has one of the lowest poverty rates in Armenia at 42 percent.

Lucik, like so many Armenians, suffered from preventable blindness.  She was blind in both eyes from cataracts- a condition in the U.S. that rarely results in blindness because it is almost always detected early and treated before the patient loses their sight.

Blind in one eye for four years and both eyes for more than two years, Lucik commented, “It’s been 2 years and 1 month since I have not seen with both my eyes. I need surgery for both eyes. I have to reduce my movements.  I have to spend most of my time indoors because I don’t see.” Lucik has a calendar where she noted every day of her blindness.

Lucik was first seen by a doctor when the Mobile Eye Hospital visited her village for eye screenings and treatment—made possible through the “Adopt-a-Village” program and a generous contribution from Ms. Dickie Hovsepian of San Francisco, California, covering the remote villages of Tavush.  As soon as Lucik was seen and her blindness diagnosed, she was scheduled for two surgeries- one in each eye- nine days between. After her first surgery she began counting “the days of light” on her calendar.

When the doctors told Lucik that they would be able to restore her sight with surgery she was skeptical.  While in her bed near the wooden stove her grandchild asks about her eyes.  She wonders if Granny will be able to see again. Lucik responded, “I don’t believe I can see again. Well, the doctors say I will.”

Following her second surgery o the Mobile Eye Hospital, when Dr. Asatour Hovsepian removed the bandages, Lucik exclaimed, “I’m OK!  Newly born! I see very well, I haven’t seen the grandchildren since they were small kids, there was kind of a cloud in my eyes, then blindness, and now the clouds are gone, now I see light.  I see people!”

Lucik looked at her granddaughter Anna, “Oh, Anna. I did not recognize you, all of you kids have grown and changed.  I am so happy thanks to all the people who brought me here.  All of the doctors.  Everyone!”  Her husband commented,  “I would not believe she would be able to see again, incredible, and then I see her come and she can see; how good there are such kind organizations in the world, such kind doctors!”

As Lucik proclaims, there are few things that can change an individual’s life as radically as restoring their sight, “I am telling you.  I am re-born!” 

Lucik and her life
Where she lives? The village Artsvaberd of Tavush marz, about 1000 households- 3,000 residents, two secondary schools- one 8 grades, and one 10 grades.  Lucik lives in a house situated at the outskirts of the village. The house has one living room, one bedroom and a kind of corridor where Lucik lives, as well as a kitchen and a basement.  The wooden stove is in the corridor- Lucik’s bed is next to it.  The family has a little plot of land, a garden with fruit trees, an orchard with vegetables, as well as a few sheep and hens.

Who she lives with?  Husband, Son, Ashot, his wife – Lucik’s daughter-in-law, Maro, 5 grandchildren- 9 people.  Lucik’s grandchildren: the eldest, girl, name Termine, age 16 goes to school grade 10, the youngest girl Anna is 5 and is the only one who does not attend school.

The poverty- and how Lucik came to the attention of the EyeCare Project.  Lucik comes from a clergy family. Lucik and her husband of nearly 50 years- they got married in 1955 are pensioners. In Soviet times the family was considered to be quite well-off, they worked as farmers in the kolkhoz- a collective farm. When they got married, they had to rent a house, then the kolkhoz allocated a plot of land and they built the house where they still live.

Currently, Lucik and her husband receive a small pension- about USD 8 each, Lucik’s son and daughter-in-law have no employment, they labor their small land plot and the family lives off it.  Regardless of the poverty, the family is not part of Paros – same as 80% of the village population.

Lucik came to the attention of EyeCare Project during general screening, as blind from cataracts in both eyes- one eye for 4 years and one eye for two years which is two years of total blindness). AECP was able to organize extended screening and treatment activities in the remote villages of Tavush region such as Artsvaberd thanks to the generous contribution of Ms. Dickie Hovsepian- USD 2874 as part of “adopt-a-village” initiative.