U.S. ENVOY VISITED USAID-SUPPORTED PROJECTS IN CHARENTSAVAN
LRAGIR.AM
18:08:26 – 21/04/2009
As part of her regional tour to Kotayk Marz on April 21, 2009,
U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch visited the
USAID-supported Armenian EyeCare Project and Soup Kitchen in
Charentsavan, accompanied by town Mayor Hakob Shahgaldyan, U.S. Embassy
and USAID/Armenia representatives.
USAID has partnered with the Diaspora-founded Armenian EyeCare
Project (AECP) since 2004. The project’s mission is to eliminate
preventable blindness and make eye care accessible to all people in
Armenia. Ambassador Yovanovitch visited the project’s state-of-the-art
Mobile Eye Hospital, stationed at the Charentsavan hospital, and
conversed with project doctors and community members waiting for
their examination or surgical treatment. During the last AECP visit
to Charentsavan in 2007, 156 adults and 343 children were screened
for eye problems, and 90 patients were then referred to Mobile Eye
Hospital for detailed eye examination. AECP also provided 72 pairs
of glasses and performed surgeries for 28 vulnerable people.
The U.S. envoy then visited the USAID-supported Charentsavan
Community Center and Soup Kitchen – one of 25 Day Centers operated
across Armenia by the Mission Armenia NGO. Operating since 2004, the
center in Charentsavan offers a broad range of services to the town’s
197 most vulnerable residents, including the elderly, the disabled,
refugees residing in temporary dwellings, families with many children
and the unemployed. The facility provides a hot meal once a day,
five days a week, social and health services (including home visits)
and arranges vocational training courses for vulnerable community
members. Ambassador Yovanovitch toured the facility, joined the
elderly for lunch and observed the eye screening and public health
talk, conducted by AECP doctors for the center’s visitors.