Atamian Family Announces Fifth Major $100,000 Donation for Reconstruction of Border Village Housing
Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur, Armenia – In 2012, the family of Jean-Marie Atamian, in working through The Paros Foundation’s Prosperity on the Border Initiative, initiated a systematic and comprehensive investment program to rebuild the infrastructure and housing stock of this important border village with a growing population of over 1,100 residents located in the Berd area of Armenia’s Tavush Region. Over the course of the last few decades, this key strategic village has suffered from Azeri shelling and a lack of investment, creating both dangerous and difficult living conditions.
Ghukas A. holds one of his grandchildren. Soon they will enjoy a newly rebuilt home to prosper in for years to come.
The first phases of the Atamian family’s redevelopment plan were to finance the complete reconstruction of the village’s infrastructure including, but not limited to, its large secondary school, expanded kindergarten, medical center, emergency services building and water distribution system. Several families have also benefited from agribusiness and animal husbandry projects.
Having completed the rebuilding of NKA’s infrastructure, the Atamian family is currently focused on the large-scale reconstruction of severely damaged houses to provide quality and secure homes for deserving families. In the past two years, seven houses were rebuilt. Most recently, the village celebrated the opening of two completely rebuilt homes, one for the village nurse (Emma A.) and the other house for the family of Suren G., who repatriated to the village with his wife and their three young children and serves in the local police force.
The eighth major house reconstruction project will benefit the family of Ghukas A. Ghukas is a hard-working villager whose family of seven includes two sons who serve in the military defending our borders. One of his sons has an infant. The family’s current house is uninhabitable and requires a complete reconstruction and expansion of its existing living space to accommodate this large and growing family. Once completed, the house will be provided with new furniture, kitchen appliances and a bathroom. The anticipated cost of the project is $30,000. At least three additional families will be the beneficiaries of this program in the coming year.
In addition to providing families with dramatically improved living conditions, these projects have created material benefits to the local economy by providing numerous long-term construction jobs and promoting the purchase of furniture and materials manufactured in Armenia.
The Atamian family acknowledges the generous support of the Strauch Kulhanjian family, who underwrites the administrative expenses of The Paros Foundation, allowing 100% of donor contributions to be allocated in their entirety to the sponsored projects.
The Paros Foundation is financially responsible for purchasing homes, home renovations and its staff to identify and screen families for resettlement. Sahman NGO, will finance, design and implement a significant economic support effort to enable each family to successfully generate enough income to care for their family. Focus on Children Now (FCN) will completely furnish the family home including major appliances and will supplement each of the family’s children with a three-month nutrition. In addition, FCN will underwrite the tuition of any kindergarten-aged children to attend school and secure the benefit of early education. Teach For Armenia will provide each school-aged child a computer tablet and internet connection. In addition, Teach For Armenia’s Emergency Education Program will work directly with school leadership to provide additional educational and psychological support for these children as part of their community transition and integration. Coalition partners will offer final approvals for each aspect of the complete package for each family.
In the village of Varagavan, only one small portion of the building that housed the village kindergarten was able to be used for a partial day program for 19 children in the village. A total of more than 40 children are of kindergarten and preschool age, but none of the children in this community were able to fully benefit from a full day early education program. This large, two story building needed a complete rebuild including roof, water, electrical, sewer and gas systems. New windows, doors, stairs, flooring and kitchens and bathrooms were installed as part of The Paros Foundation’s Prosperity on the Border initiative. Work on the kindergarten at Varagavan was made possible through donations received primarily from the “Cocktails on the Terrace” fundraiser generously sponsored by Gregory and Kelley Badishkanian at their home. To view a video of the Varagavan Kindergarten, please visit www.parosfoundation.org and search for Varagavan Kindergarten.
4,000 families who were living in horrible conditions. These families lived in “domiks”: condemned buildings, wagons or old shipping containers. Nine years later, more than 2,000 families are still living in these deplorable conditions.
Despite the global pandemic and the devastating war in Artsakh, on December 4, 2020, The Paros Foundation reached a major milestone with the move of its 25th family from a “domik” into a permanent home of their own.
We are proud to introduce the recipient of this new home, Zaruhi Minasyan and her two sons, who have lived in a domik for the last 15 years. Zaruhi’s husband left for Russia three years ago and never returned, leaving her to raise their sons alone. With the support from her family and social welfare payments, she makes ends meet. Our friends at the Shirak Center NGO in Gyumri worked with us to identify the family. Once the Minasyan family was selected, our team found them a suitable apartment and purchased it. As part of this project’s agreement with the family, this apartment cannot be sold or rented, and the family must live there for at least ten
years. In addition, once the family has been moved into their new place, their old domik will be disassembled. To prevent others from occupying this domik, Shirak Center NGO, with support from The Paros Foundation, tore down the domik and used the scrap materials to support other families living in poverty in Gyumri.
This 25th “Purchase a Home” was made possible with the support and sponsorship of the Employees of Western Drug and the Youredjian Family. 
