As a Mountain Works Its Magic...Health-Care Help Comes from Afar (int'l edition)

In the rugged mountains of southern Armenia, where the specters of mass emigration and unemployment haunt the land, the villagers of Kadjaran believe a mythical bear has once again saved them from destitution. Local lore says that more than 2,000 years ago, when the region was economically blighted, the bear offered villagers the key to a treasure trove hidden in a nearby mountain. The mountain, renamed Gondzasar or Treasure Mountain, contains a mother lode of copper that has been a mainstay of the community ever since.

Today, with Armenia's industrial sector in ruins and neighboring Azerbaijan and Turkey blockading the nation in the wake of war, the bear seems to be carrying out another rescue operation. The state-owned Zangezur Copper-Molybdenum Combine, reopened six years ago, has been the savior of Kadjaran, posting record growth rates in the otherwise deeply depressed Syunik region, where 18% of the workforce is unemployed and more than 20% of the population has emigrated since 1998. ''The mine has kept people from leaving,'' says Zhora Hovsepian, the charming, mustachioed, 52-year-old mayor of the town of 8,500. ''Our town economy is still functioning, unlike the rest of the country.''

The Kadjaran region contains one of the largest molybdenum deposits in the world as well as copper. The formation of Zangezur in 1945 brought mining of the two minerals under one roof and greatly expanded production, attracting job seekers from all over the country. The complex soon became a chief supplier to the Soviet defense industry. Molybdenum, a by-product of copper mining, is used to strengthen steel and inhibit corrosion.

But dark days came after Armenia gained independence from Russia. The loss of state subsidies and Soviet bloc markets caused Zangezur to largely shut down in 1991, though for a time it kept running with a skeleton crew. Since the complex employed nearly 30% of Kadjaran residents, its closure dealt the town a heavy blow, forcing many locals to leave for Russia in search of work. Additional factory shutdowns in the area and the outbreak of war with Azerbaijan in 1992 only made things worse. ''In the early 1990s, you could count the number of days we worked on your hands,'' says Maxim Hakobyan, Zangezur's general director. ''Despite the problems, we kept our machinery and resources and didn't sell them, convinced we would reopen after the troubles had passed.''

BIG PARTY. In 1994, at the end of the war, Zangezur reopened, with the state again ready to finance production. Foreign investment, once proclaimed essential to the mine's resurrection, never arrived, forcing Armenia to reinvigorate Zangezur on its own. A plan to increase capacity and streamline production was quickly implemented to help the complex regain solvency in the absence of defense subsidies. Since reopening, Zangezur has boosted output by 25% to 30% a year. The plant expects to hit full operating capacity of 1,000 metric tons this year and now employs 2,360, up from 1,670 in 1998. If those gains continue, Kadjaran had better hold a big party for that bear.

While Zangezur is adding badly needed money to residents' wallets, Mission East, a Danish humanitarian aid organization, is working to improve primary health care. The group became involved in Armenia during the war, when it built an emergency hospital. Today, Syunik still has few functioning clinics and pharmacies, so residents often have to travel far for treatment and medicine. Transportation costs, which many can ill afford, are frequently higher than the price of whatever drugs are needed.

Three years ago, Mission East started rehabilitating village health clinics north of Kadjaran and supplying them with a steady stream of drugs and training. The pilot program reaches some 6,000 people now and is scheduled to expand to 35,000, including Kadjaran. With subsidies from the government and moderate fees paid by patients, the clinics are supposed to become self-sustaining by 2003. ''This program will be a tremendous help for our town, which is now just full of refugees and pensioners who have no real access to medicine,'' says Emma Hakobian, post nurse in the village of Barekavan, 15 kilometers from Kadjaran. So besides the bear, southern Armenia owes thanks to the Danes.

By Kristina Shevory in Kadjaran