US AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA VISITED USAID-SUPPORTED PROJECTS IN CHARENTSAVAN

armradio.am
21.04.2009 17:32

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 el derly, 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.