Dilijaan’s Children sanatorium is the only major sanatorium for the children of Armenia who have TB-infected family members. It is located in the Marz of Lori but serves the entire country. Besides providing room and board, it provides basic medical care like medicine, blood test etc. Since most parents can’t afford the cost of transportation, Dilijan has a 10 person bus that goes around Armenia to collect the children.

The government provides 200,000 Drams ($600) for each child that comes to Dilijan for 50 days. These funds are used for caring for the children, heating, staff salary etc.  The energy source at the present time is electricity. Heating and kitchen appliances are powered by electricity. This is a very expensive source of energy. It costs $5,000 per month to heat the complex in the winter. If energy source switched to natural gas, heating cost drops to $1,000 per month. There is no laundry/dryer (that’s why you see laundry hanging from the balconies) and a very small refrigerator for an institution that has 130 residents (children and staff).

Due to AMF’s efforts this year, we have doubled the capacity of the Dilijan Sanatorium. Two dormitories existed on the Dilijan campus. The two buildings could accommodate 200 children, but due to the poor condition of one of the buildings, they could only operate at half capacity. They were old Soviet era buildings with leaking roofs, crumbling walls and poor sanitary conditions. Due to the completion of our reconstruction work this year, the Sanatorium can now accommodate 200 children and allow them to live in a decent place that is a “home away from home”

Over the last 10 years the AMF has accomplished the following:

  • Fixed the roof of the cafeteria (cost 30,000), thus preventing leakage.
  • Purchased a fax machine to ease communications.
  • Fully Renovated Building number 2- thus doubling the capacity of the building (cost 150,000).
  • Extended a gas line to reduce the cost of heating.
  • Purchased water heaters for building number 2, the dining and the recreation halls.
  • Built retaining wall to protect the cafeteria, kitchen, storage room from downhill floods