VIVACELL ACQUAINTS YOUTH OF THE DIASPORA WITH THEIR MOTHERLAND

ArmInfo
2008-10-06 11:43:00

ArmInfo. VivaCell-MTS has donated AMD 20 mln to "Depi Hayk" Foundation
to realize comprehensive project which includes inviting to Armenia the
youth of the Diaspora for communication with their peers and engaging
them with their Motherland. As the Company told ArmInfo, VivaCell-MTS
staff together with volunteers of "Depi Hayk" Foundation realized
construction-renovation works in the secondary school of Norgyugh
village, Kotayk marz. In particular, 7 classrooms were redecorated
and the walls recolored.

Considering the preservation of national identity and culture as the
mission of every socially- responsible company, VivaCell-MTS takes
tangible steps to integrate the youth of the Armenian people divided
into two parts. In this respect, joint work and volunteering for public
good help foster effective communication between the Diasporan and
local Armenian youth. Young Armenians from all over the world gathered
in Norgyugh have got a chance to develop personal relationship with
their peers in Armenia, to become connected to their homeland, and
to get back in touch with their roots not only through TV programs,
internet or books about the native-soil but also as a result of
face-to-face communication.

Nothing unites people like joint work. Especially when they believe
their work is aimed at creating public good – reconstruction of
schools in rural areas where national traditions are stronger then
somewhere else, and all this for the sake of upbringing of children for
them to become educated and useful citizens for the motherland. It
is not by chance that the school was chosen as a place of joint
works by the staff of VivaCell-MTS and the volunteers of "Depi Hayk"
Foundation. The point is that VivaCell-MTS, being a corporate citizen,
pays huge attention to the school-building as the well-educated
younger generation is the greatest asset of our country and the key
to its prosperity.

As noted by Ralph Yirikian: "Being a corporate citizen means
always thinking for the future. And renovating a school is a real
long-term investment in our society, aiming at higher quality of
education and raising interest toward education, especially in rural
communities. Among Armenians, both in the Diaspora and Armenia,
high-quality education has been a very important part of life. We
must always keep our traditions awake. After all, national community
is characterized by such features as a common homeland and common
responsibility for the future."

160 schoolchildren of the village of Nor Geghi in Kotayk marz couldn’t
help waiting for the renovators. Soon they will be learning in clean,
renovated and luminous rooms. And 25 teachers are delighted as the
children are already more than ever interested in education.

These kinds of projects give opportunity to the youth of the Diaspora
to reconnect with their roots helping them to take part in Armenia’s
everyday life and invest into the development of their homeland
by volunteering, studying and at the same creating long-lasting
relations in the country of origin, eventually resulting in heightened
consciousness of national identity.