RETIRED BLACKBURN COUPLE’S ARMENIAN ADVENTURE
By Catherine Pye

Lancashire Telegraph
s/3568707.Retired_Blackburn_couple_s_Armenian_adve nture/
Aug 4 2008
UK

A RETIRED couple are about to go on a trip of a lifetime to Armenia
to help underprivileged children.

David and Sue Andrew of Whitehall Road, Blackburn, are travelling to
Yerevan and Stepanavan for a week tomorrow (Wednesday), visiting the
Area Development Programme run by the charity World Vision.

They will be helping out at a summer school for children, and working
with local communities to improve food security and access to clean
water.

Sue, 64, a former home tutor and hospital teacher, said: "We’ve never
done anything like this before and never thought we would because my
husband has had two major heart operations in the last couple of years.

"It’s marvellous we can go and I’m very excited and nervous."

David, 69, a former lecturer at Blackburn College, said: "When
Communism fell and the Russians left in 1991, they took the industry
away with them.

"There is now about 50 per cent unemployment and electricity is
prohibitively expensive.

"There was a bad earthquake in 1988 and many of the buildings are
still in their collapsed state because there are no resources."

They are representing Leamington Road Baptist Church in Blackburn,
which they have attended since 1973.

The church has supported the project for the last three years, together
with 20 other churches across the country in a project called Churches
in Partnership (CHIP).

Five others who are going on the trip are from the North East,
Birmingham and High Wycombe.

They hope to learn about the needs in the country, and take their
experiences back to their churches where fundraising can take place.

Sue and David also hope to meet the seven-year-old boy they sponsor,
called Armen.

They will be taking him a Blackburn Rovers shirt, a cap and a football.

Sue added: "Everytime I go shopping I end up coming back with things
for Armenia.

"The children at our church have also been drawing pictures for us
to take to other children their age."