YEREVAN. – There are about 2.5 billion poor in the world, whose one billion are destitute.  

Armenian sociologist Aharon Adibekyan stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Thursday, as he reflected on the International Day for Helping the Destitute. 

As for Armenia’s respective statistics, Adibekyan noted that, according to official data, about 37 percent of the families in Armenia are poor, whose 7 percent are commonly destitute.

“According to our data, the number of the absolute poor reaches 47 percent, but [only] 20 percent consider themselves poor. Every tenth family in Armenia goes to bed hungry,” the sociologist noted.    

In addition, as per Adibekyan, half of Armenia’s population has bank deposits, which total an average of $1.5 billion.

“One-hundred-thousand families receive poverty benefits, which total 29,000 drams [approx. $72] per month.   

“The fight against poverty needs to be done not solely through state leverage, but also by way of the local authorities. And, unfortunately, the [Armenian] Church is silent on this issue. 

“[But] the worst thing is that our rich people can spend huge amounts of money to build a church, but they do not help the poor families that much; that is, we should not give fish to the people, but rather teach [them] how to catch fish,” Aharon Adibekyan stressed.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am