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PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
YP Yerevan Members Go to Geghard and Gyumri to Help Families
The AGBU Young Professionals (YP) Yerevan gathered for two very special
humanitarian initiatives in November and December, aiding two families
in need.
A Family in Geghard
For the first project, a team of young professionals gathered on
November 14, 2009 to help build a house in the village of Geghard,
Armenia. YP Yerevan joined forces with employees of the Fuller Center
for Housing Armenia, the Tufenkian Foundation, and the Hye Dzmer Pap
Charitable Foundation to continue the process of eliminating poverty in
Armenia. The volunteers worked together to build a house for Senik and
Karine Karapetyan and their four children.
The Karapetyans have been moving around to various homes over the past
nineteen years, often struggling through extreme circumstances. In 2005,
the Tufenkian Foundation and the Hye Dzmer Pap Foundation jointly
provided funds so the Karapetyans could obtain land for a permanent
home. The Tufenkian Foundation, along with the telecom company
VivaCell-MTS, provided additional funding to ease the financial burden
of building the foundation for the family’s new home. Most recently, the
Fuller Center for Armenia provided an interest-free loan to the
Karapetyans.
While the heads and employees of the donor organizations worked together
with the young professionals, the family, actively and enthusiastically,
also participated in the construction of their new home. Furthermore,
they expressed their profound gratitude for all the funding granted and
the tireless work put in by the volunteers. With the construction of the
house nearly finished, the joint efforts by the family, donors and young
professionals proved this to be a venture made possible by generosity
and a strong and positive work ethic.
Helping in Gyumri
YP Yerevan members also spent countless hours throughout the months of
November and December helping the Mekhitarian family in the city of
Gyumri. Through a fundraiser, volunteers assisted the family by
obtaining firewood for the winter, donating warm clothes, and purchasing
food to stock the household. AGBU Armenia Representation Director Ashot
Ghazarian and Dr. Karine Mirzoyan of Gyumri’s Mother and Child Hospital
also helped the volunteers in providing medical care to Amalya
Mekhitarian, one of the members of the household. After an initial
medical examination, medication was provided and a nurse was assigned to
make daily visits to the house. This project was initially the
brainchild of an Armenian Student Association member in Utah, who heard
about the Mekhitarians from his family back home in Gyumri, Armenia.
Donations to the Gyumri Project were made by ASA Utah president Gagik
Melikyan, Dr. Miriam McFadden, and Raffi Shahinian, president of the
Armenian Relief Society of Utah. YP Yerevan also matched the donations
from US donors.
The Young Professionals invited journalists on one of the visits to
Gyumri, in hopes of raising awareness among the public. AGBU hopes that
similar aid efforts by Young Professionals will be made in the future,
not only performing benevolent acts but also educating people about the
problems facing families outside Yerevan and the importance of finding
long-term, sustainable ways to fix them and help create a better life
for the citizens of Armenia.
Established in 1906, AGBU () is the world’s largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
educational, cultural and humanitarian program, annually touching the
lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.
For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please visit
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress