January 2, 2020
The Shirvanian Youth Center along with the “We Are Gyumri” committee continued to work in 2020 and have a huge impact on youth in Gyumri, Armenia. Despite the difficulties that Armenia faced in 2020, we didn’t stop to educate, help and create.
Unfortunately, we started the year with COVID 19 pandemic which forced us to work and do activities online. This was a new challenge for us to overcome. During the pandemic we welcomed 9 new ‘’Mina Shirvanian Scholarship’’ recipients from the universities of Shirak Region. Due to the efforts and generosity of our sponsors, in total this year we have had 12 recipients of ‘’Mina Shirvanian Scholarship’’ program.
On September 27th, we woke up to another war. Azeri military forces started large -scale attacks along the entire Artsakh-Azerbaijan line of contact. The AYF members and volunteers went there to defend our homeland. During this time many families came from Artsakh and settled in Gyumri. Our volunteers started to collect essential supplies for displaced families. They also collected supplies for our soldiers on the frontline. The volunteers came to Shirvanian Youth Center and with willingness did all kinds of work to keep the back firm here. Unfortunately, we lost thousands of brave soldiers, volunteers and our homeland. But we didn’t lose our hope and faith as we are going to create and develop our homeland. We will continue to educate and grow up the youth for our future. We are sure that one day we will get back all our lands and will complete the mission of our fallen soldiers.
At the end of the year we launched a new initiative for the families from Artsakh staying in Gyumri and Shirak Region. With the help of our sponsors we have collected 285 blankets and boxes of hygiene items to provide to each family. Also we’ve cooperated with “Eyes on Artsakh” and have provided with food for 142 families from Artsakh.
Recently the Homenetmen ‘’Vahan Cheraz’’ chapter, which works at Shirvanian Youth Center, has organized an event for the youth of Artsakh. They invited them at Shirvanian Youth Center, got acquainted with each other, played games, talked and had much fun together. Later they had a city tour in Gyumri.
We wish power and wisdom to our nation in 2021 for overcoming the upcoming challenges with honor.
The establishment of the center would not have been possible without the generous contribution by the late Hacob and Mina Shirvanian, for whom creating and advancing educational and cultural opportunities for the youth of Armenia was a life-long priority. Accordingly the center was named after them and their legacy lives on through the vibrant activities carried out at the center. Hacob and Mina Shirvanian traveled to Gyumri and were present at the ribbon-cutting and opening ceremony of the center. To celebrate the couple’s unwavering support, the “We Are Gyumri” committee decided to name its annual scholarship program in memory of Mina Shirvanian.
The “We are Gyumri” program is an initiative of the ARF Western U.S. Central Committee.