FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fund for Armenian Relief
630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Contact: Edina N. Bobelian
Tel: (212) 889-5150; Fax: (212) 889-4849
E-mail: edina@farusa.org
Website:

August 17, 2005
____________________

“DOING OUR PART TO HELP”
IN-KIND DONATIONS AID ARMENIA’S DEVELOPMENT

“After observing an operation at the University Hospital #1 in Yerevan,
my husband Roberto, who is a surgeon, was awed by the great lack of
medical supplies, the extremely outdated equipment, and the huge
difference in conditions under which Armenia’s doctors operate,”
explained Nadia Rodriguez. “For example, we were told that surgeons are
instructed not to use sterile gloves on patients who cannot afford the
extra $5 fee. By American standards, this is unbelievable! We wanted
to help improve the conditions in Armenia’s public hospitals for the
sake of both the patients and the doctors.”

Since February 2005, Mrs. Rodriguez, working with the Fund for Armenian
Relief (FAR), has coordinated with hospitals in the northeast to donate
supplies and equipment to Armenia. These range from such basics as
sterile gloves, blood tubes, and wound closure kits to more complicated
machinery such as fetal heart rate monitors, defibrillators, critical
care monitors and x-ray equipment. Mrs. Rodriguez has secured more than
$170,000 worth of gifts in-kind. “I hope this is only the beginning,”
she states.

“Since we had the contacts, my husband and I wanted to do our part to
help. Jeffrey Welsh, Vice President of resources and materials
management at Meridian Health, has been extremely helpful in offering
equipment for our cause. Through him and others we have been able to
secure equipment that is more modern than the equipment currently in use
by many U.S. hospitals! If only we knew more people that hold similar
positions in other hospitals throughout the US. Our goal is to have a
continuous flow, in bulk, of updated medical supplies to Armenia.”

The gifts in-kind identified by Mrs. Rodriguez complement FAR’s
Continuing Medical Education (CME) program. This program offers
post-graduate training opportunities to Armenia’s doctors in order to
enhance their skills and knowledge in their chosen fields of medicine.
The medical equipment and supplies will be distributed to the hospitals
and clinics where FAR trainees and their mentors practice.

IN-KIND DONATIONS

Gifts in-kind are contributions of material items made by a donor to
help support the operations or services provided by a nonprofit
organization. FAR, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in
New York, accepts all in-kind donations, with the exception of medicine,
that would be needed, useful, and helpful to the people of Armenia and
Karabagh by the container-load.

Gifts in-kind have been particularly bountiful for FAR in 2005.

* Continuing a long tradition, New York’s Jack Torosian donated
valuable science and reference books to FAR for specialized schools and
universities in Armenia.
* More than $100,000 worth of medical equipment and supplies has been
collected by Dr. Raffi Avitisian and Serop Demirjian of Cleveland, OH to
be sent to Armenia for FAR’s CME Program.
* Dr. Dennis Vollman, of the Southgate Radiology & CT, Nuclear Medicine
and Ultrasound in Michigan, donated a CT scanner and an ultrasound unit,
valued at $85,000. This was not the first time Dr. Vollman worked with
FAR. He had sent medical equipment to Armenia through FAR immediately
after the 1988 earthquake.
* New York Presbyterian Hospital sent 800 epidural anesthesia kits,
amounting to close to $10,000, to Armenia’s public hospitals thanks to
the efforts of FAR Board member Dr. Edgar Housepian.
* Harry Minoian persuaded the Niagara Falls Board of Education to
donate approximately $300,000 worth of brand-new textbooks to Armenia
through FAR. The subjects of these books cover history, literature,
U.S. government and foreign languages, including English as a second
language, French and Spanish. FAR will distribute these much-needed
textbooks to its Ounjian School, Catholicos Vasken I School, Mathevosian
School, as well as other public schools with foreign language
specializations.
* Florida’s Lucine Harvey secured enough children’s goods, ranging from
basic necessities, like clothes, shoes, mattresses, pillows, towels,
soaps, and toothpaste, to school supplies to fun items, like toys and
bicycles, to fill three 40-foot containers. These diverse goods, valued
at more than $145,000, will benefit FAR’s Siranoosh summer camp in
Yeghegnadzor, the Yeghegnadzor college, the Dilijan Children’s Health
Center, and the Yerevan Children’s Reception and Orientation Center for
homeless children.
* Hagop Vartevarian of New Jersey contributed new bath towels and bed
sheets, worth more than $3,000, for FAR’s Vanadzor Old Age Home and the
State University Guest House in Yerevan.
* Gregory Manuelian of New York donated a professional digital camera
having a $1,000 market value for FAR’s Press Office in Armenia and
Karabagh.
* Mike Hovesepian, through Pennsylvania’s Global Rubber, Inc., gave
1,600 square feet of rubber mats worth $12,450, for a new playground
built by FAR at the Nork Orphanage in Yerevan.
* AmeriCares has donated 171,600 8-ounce bottles of Ensure, the
nutritional beverage, to FAR via UAF. A 40-foot container filled with
62,400 bottles (20 pallets) is currently on its way to Armenia to help
beneficiaries at FAR’s soup kitchens, the Old Age Homes in Vanadzor and
Gyumri as well as the Hagop S. Touloukian Senior Center in Gyumri. Two
more containers (packed with the remaining 35 pallets) will be sent to
Armenia shortly.
* AmeriCares also gave more than 9,200 bottles of children’s vitamins
(four pallets) to FAR via UAF. These essential supplements were
distributed to needy children through hospitals, polyclinics and youth
institutes.

Since its founding in response to the 1988 earthquake, FAR has served 10
million people through 130+ relief and development programs in Armenia
and Karabagh. It has channeled more than $250 million in humanitarian
assistance by implementing a wide range of projects including emergency
relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic development.
FAR is dedicated to realizing the dream of a free, democratic,
prosperous, and culturally rich Armenia.

For more information about in-kind donations or to send contributions,
contact the Fund for Armenian Relief at 630 Second Avenue, New York, NY
10016; telephone (212) 889-5150, fax (212) 889-4849; ,
far@farusa.org.

— 8/17/05

E-mail photo available upon request.

PHOTO CAPTION1: Dr. Roberto Rodriguez of Boston, MA (right) observed an
operation performed by Dr. Gevorg Yaghjyan (left) in University Hospital
#1 in Yerevan. That experience inspired him and his wife, Nadia, to
fundraise for gifts in-kind with the goal of having a continuous flow,
in bulk, of updated medical supplies to Armenia.

PHOTO CAPTION2: FAR Executive Director Garnik Nanagoulian (far left)
was impressed with the collection of medical gifts in-kind that Dr.
Raffi Avitisian (far right) and Serop Demirjian (second from left) of
Cleveland, OH were able to amass to send to Armenia for FAR’s CME
Program. They began looking for ways to help Armenia’s medical
professionals after mentoring Dr. Mushegh Israelyan (second from right)
from Karabagh.

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