PRESS RELEASE
THE ARMENIA FUND
Governmental Building 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: [email protected]
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Hayastan All-Armenian Fund newly constructed school revitalizes Spitakashen
Yerevan, November 11, 2009 – The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund has built and
furnished a school in Spitakashen, a border village in Artsakh’s Martuni
Region. The construction and furnishing with a price tag of close to
200?460?000 AMD was co-financed by the fund’s Toronto affiliate and the
government of Artsakh.
The official inauguration of the school will take place in May 2010
conditioned by the visit of the sponsors and benefactors.
Attending the opening ceremony were Nagorno-Karabakh minister of education
Vladik Khachatryan, head of the Martuni administration Lyudmila Azizyan,
Hayastan Fund Executive Director Ara Vardanyan, Deputy Director Ararat
Khlghatyan, principal of the school Shiraz Hayrapetyan, mayor of Spitakashen
Armen Khachatryan, residents of the Spitakashen.
The new building is immediately well distinguished within the rural
landscape background. In a few weeks the school will receive its 74 pupils
with its well-equipped and heated classrooms, well-lit library, beautiful
events hall, and a large playground. The school designed for 130 students,
and if necessary, will accommodate students from close-by villages.
"School construction is a major development goal of the Hayastan
All-Armenian Fund, which has already built more than 200 kindergartens and
schools throughout Artsakh and Armenia, and today this list was replenished
with a new project. I hope that down the years, these children will
contribute their knowledge to the welfare of our homeland", said Ara
Vardanyan, the Fund’s Executive Director.
"The old school built in 1935 had become not only terribly unsafe for
students and teachers but it also lacked almost all the elementary
facilities. In order to enter the school, the pupils had to pass through the
cultural center located on the ground floor of the building. Today 74
students are able to attend a wonderfully appointed and comfortable school,
a fact that will have the added benefit of raising the overall quality of
education", said the school’s principal Shiraz Hayrapetyan addressing his
words of gratitude to the Artsakh Government and Fund’s Toronto affiliate.
We would note that the funds for the construction and furnishing of the
school were gathered due to several meetings and fundraising events
conducted by the Fund’s Toronto affiliate. Among those events was a six-day
bike ride jointly organized by the Toronto and USA Western Region affiliates
in this September resulting in $50?000, which, like the previous year,
benefited the construction of the school in Spitakashen village. This is
already the fifth school sponsored by the Toronto affiliate. Before this
they have financed the construction of schools in the villages Verin
Horatagh and Mataghis of Martakert Region, Shosh village of Askeran Region
as well as physico-mathematical school in Stepanakert.
Spitakashen was the site of another major development project in 2008, when
the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, with financing from its Argentinean
affiliate, ended the village’s longstanding potable-water crisis by building
a water-distribution system thus providing 110 families with round the clock
drinking water.
Hayastan All Armenian Fund