PRESS RELEASE
Fuller Center for Housing Armenia
Baghramyan 3rd lane, House 10 A
Yerevan, Armenia
Contact: Meri Poghosyan
Tel: 374-94-480313
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Fuller Center Opens Program in Armenia with 1-to-1 Match
YEREVAN, ARMENIA, MAY 8, 2008 The rapidly-growing Fuller Center for Housing
ministry is pleased to welcome The Fuller Center-Armenia to our world-wide
family. A Partnership Covenant was signed with the organizing group there on
May 2nd, and Millard Fuller has announced that the first $100,000 raised for
the Armenian program will be matched 1-to-1, so that $200,000 can be sent to
begin building immediately.
The Fuller Center for Housing Armenia will build and renovate homes in
partnership with God’s people in need so that all Armenians may have a safe,
comfortable, simple home which is affordable to own and to maintain. Fuller
Center Armenia is a nonprofit ministry which charges no interest, thereby
witnessing God’s love in action and advocating for the right to decent
shelter.
The leaders of The Fuller Center-Armenia have solid experience in building
and renovating houses for God’s people in need. They propose innovative
approaches that will serve the needs of many Armenians in an economic and
regulatory environment that makes building there more expensive than it is
in many other parts of the world. Part of their work will be with families
who own their own land and have started building a house but lack the funds
to complete it. There are many such families throughout the country,
families who need capital, not charity. The Fuller Center will provide these
families with the materials and construction expertise they need to finish
their homes.
Another focus area will be with families who own apartments that are in need
of repair. Like most former Soviet countries, Armenia is dotted with huge
apartment complexes. Since independence, many of those apartments have been
privatized, but many are in disrepair. The Fuller Center will help families
in these apartments refurbish their homes and make them safe, sound and
hygienic.
The UN estimates that 40,000 Armenian families lack permanent shelter.
Following the devastating earthquake in 1989, thousands of families were
moved into shipping containers brought in from across the Soviet Union. The
containers were intended to be temporary houses until new ones could be
built, but now, 19 years later, thousands still live in these temporary
structures, called domiks. The Fuller Center-Armenia will work to give these
families simple, decent and affordable homes as well.
There is tremendous interest in sending volunteer teams to Armenia, and a
number are planned for this building season, which runs from April through
October. Please email [email protected] for the available dates and
details.
Millard Fuller, a founder of The Fuller Center for Housing commented: "We
are delighted to welcome Armenia to the Fuller Center family and look
forward to working together to provide decent shelter for all Armenians."
For more information on The Fuller Center Armenia, please visit
.
About The Fuller Center for Housing: The Fuller Center for Housing was
founded in the spring of 2005 at Koinonia Farm in rural southwest Georgia.
After 29 years of tireless service to the poor with Habitat for Humanity,
Millard Fuller, the founder and president of Habitat, was motivated to
expand his vision of eliminating substandard housing worldwide. The Fuller
Center for Housing, faith driven and Christ centered, promotes collaborative
and innovative partnerships with individuals and organizations in an
unrelenting quest to provide adequate shelter for all people in need
worldwide. TFCH has programs in 35 U.S. communities and in 12 countries
around the world. For more information, please visit