Lousé Foundation goes beyond rehabilitation

At Lousé Foundation, Anahit Ohanyan, a designer and lecturer displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, helps parents of children with disabilities create and express their emotions through art. After being displaced, the center’s art therapist realized how important creativity can be for a person’s psychological well-being. At the same time, displacement changed the way she thinks about creativity. Before being displaced, art was primarily a means of creative self-expression for her; now, it has also become a way to preserve memories, process emotions and find inner strength. Sometimes, mothers who initially arrive feeling exhausted and tense gradually begin to open up through the creative process, share their experiences and regain confidence in their own strengths. These changes may seem small, but in reality, they are deeply meaningful. “Perhaps that is why I decided to deepen my knowledge of art therapy. It was also a way of helping myself heal and rediscover who I am,” Ohanyan told the Weekly. Themes of home, roots, longing and a sense of belonging now appear more frequently in Ohanyan’s work, often naturally and without conscious intention. At the Lousé Center, she facilitates art therapy and creative workshops for mothers of children with disabilities. The work is based on self-expression through creativity, reducing emotional stress and fostering mutual support among participants. Although Ohanyan’s primary work is with mothers, she has observed that when a parent becomes calmer, more confident and emotionally stable, it has a positive impact on the child as well. “Change often begins with the creation of a safer and more supportive environment within the family,” she said. Lousé Foundation is a nonprofit rehabilitation and family support center in Yerevan, Armenia. Established in 2018, the mission of the center is to support children with disabilities and special needs while strengthening and empowering their families. The center provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary support for children and youth with disabilities, focusing on rehabilitation, inclusion, independence and improved quality of life. A highlight of its work includes an inclusive self-defense karate program for children and youth with Down syndrome, autism and cerebral palsy. When I learned about the karate team, the parents and some members of the team who visited the U.S., I decided to find out more about this collaboration and the work done by Lousé. The exchange visit was hosted by the city of Glendale through its Sister Cities Program. The visit to the United States came through the initiative of the president of the JKS Federation, which collaborates with Lousé Foundation through the karate program. Gohar Galstyan, director of the Lousé Foundation Center, said the trip was so inspiring for both staff and participants that they returned with renewed energy and a commitment to implement new initiatives. They had the opportunity to visit different rehabilitation and development centers, the Glendale Police Department and a fire station, and they also found time to visit Disneyland. Click to view slideshow. “The system, the structure and the protocols we saw there were really very impressive. While in Armenia many things depend on the commitment and passion of individuals, in the U.S. the system works as a whole,” Galstyan said. At the same time, Galstyan noticed that, in terms of the services provided in Armenia, they are in many ways more advanced. Even American colleagues acknowledged this. While participating in a group session, the Armenian team saw excellent resources, materials, equipment and teaching tools. However, when it comes to creativity and innovation, Galstyan believes Armenia has certain strengths. Specialists in Armenia are used to working with limited resources, finding ways to repurpose materials that others might discard, adapting them and giving them a new use. When they shared some of these approaches, U.S. colleagues were often surprised and impressed. “One of the main lessons our specialists took away was related to group work. Our services are largely based on individual support, whereas there we observed many group-based approaches,” Galstyan said. “We learned new techniques for organizing groups, dividing children into smaller groups and creating collaborative working environments that help prevent professional burnout and conserve specialists’ energy and resources.” Parents also gained valuable insights from the visit. For them, one of the most important observations was seeing how systematically services are organized. Families do not have to navigate the system on their own, search for funding, request services from different agencies or try to determine where to go next. The system provides a clear structure and pathway. They also observed how individualized education plans and support services are implemented consistently and meaningfully. Another point parents frequently mentioned was participation. In Armenia, we often talk about the importance of participation and inclusion, but there they were able to see these principles in practice. Galstyan recalled that while visiting one of the rehabilitation centers, they met different people and took photos. Later, one participant, who was about 35 years old, changed her mind and said she no longer wanted her photograph to be used publicly. Galstyan later received a message confirming her request. “That experience highlighted how strongly personal choice and individual autonomy are respected. There is a significant emphasis on the individual — their identity, their preferences, their decisions and their right to determine what happens to them,” the director said. “This focus on personal agency was one of the most noticeable differences we observed.” Ani Nazaryan, the special education teacher at Lousé Foundation Center, was among the specialists who had the opportunity to visit the U.S. The work of a special education teacher at Lousé is aimed at helping children with different developmental needs overcome learning difficulties. A special education teacher assesses each child’s educational challenges, strengths and needs, develops an individualized learning plan, and applies effective methods and strategies to address learning difficulties. This support contributes to the child’s full inclusion and participation in the educational environment. Nazaryan was particularly interested in one of the centers where they observed how the educational play-based program Big Builders was used with children of different age groups and developmental profiles. The program was designed to support the development of cognitive skills, creative thinking, imagination and communication skills. Activities were presented with gradually increasing levels of difficulty. The program encourages children to independently find solutions to problems, explore alternative approaches, follow instructions, imitate models and practice patience while waiting their turn. It was also implemented in a group setting, where children were able to communicate with one another, help each other achieve the desired model or outcome and take pride in the results they created together. “As a specialist, I was especially impressed by the way services are coordinated and made accessible to individuals with different developmental needs and their families,” Nazaryan said. “I was also deeply impressed by the work of New Horizons: Serving Individuals with Special Needs. Through employment programs, job placement support and vocational training, the organization helps individuals develop skills and promotes their ability to lead more independent lives.” The specialist highly values the study of international experience and best practices. The visit to the United States was not only an opportunity for her to gain new knowledge and experience but also a chance to transform her professional perspective and approach. It helped her better understand and explore the application of modern methods and approaches aimed at supporting children’s effective development, increasing their independence and promoting their active participation in community life. Young people with and without disabilities work together at the robotics club and collaborate with soldiers injured in war. Another room is equipped with a floor monitor displaying thousands of developmental games for both children and adults. There are rooms where children receive various services from speech therapists, psychologists, special education teachers, art therapists and other specialists. More than 70 children receive annual support at Lousé. “Sometimes, people say, ‘Only 70?’ But they cannot imagine the efforts we make to provide these services. Among the parents, we have those who are able to pay for the services, so after the three-month free period, they start paying, and we use this income to provide services to those who cannot afford them,” Galstyan said. The dynamic of fathers’ involvement in children’s lives has not changed dramatically, according to Galstyan, but within their programs, they continue trying to engage fathers as well. Bringing fathers into discussions or involving them in events remains somewhat challenging because many of them see themselves primarily as providers. They often feel that their main responsibility is to secure the family’s finances, while the mother is expected to take care of the child’s education and upbringing. Currently, the Lousé Foundation Center has a project that provides parents with training in new skills. For example, they create scented candles and jewelry pieces made with epoxy resin. “We also teach our parents traditional Marash embroidery, and we have chocolate-making workshops where they regularly come and participate,” Galstyan said. For now, the items they create are used as gifts for partners. However, during the visit to the United States, the center received an interesting offer: to sell the products in the U.S. and receive 100% of the income from there. According to Galstyan, this could become a valuable opportunity to establish a small social enterprise and help maintain the services in the future without constantly being in the position of seeking funding. The experience of Lousé shows that inclusion is not only about providing services — it is about creating opportunities, building independence and recognizing the value and voice of every individual and family. The post Lousé Foundation goes beyond rehabilitation appeared first on The Armenian Weekly.