Berkeley, CA— With stay-at-home orders in place for communities throughout Armenia, The Paros Foundation has risen to the challenge of helping feed Armenia’s elderly, at-risk and impoverished populations.

In the Berd Consolidated Communities, which is comprised of 17 towns and villages in Armenia’s North Eastern border with Azerbaijan, The Paros Foundation responded to an urgent need for food packets to be distributed to 800 elderly and disabled residents in these communities. With financial support from the Armenian diaspora, Paros staff quickly contracted with food suppliers to get the food staples delivered to the Berd municipality where staff and volunteers coordinated this massive distribution effort. This process has been repeated twice to date.

Food packages for the families of children at the Debi Arach Children Center ready for distribution.

When the spread of Covid-19 closed schools throughout Armenia, the staff at the Debi Arach Children’s Center took similar safety precautions and closed its doors temporarily. This, however, created another problem. Many of the children that attend this academically focused after school program count on the nutrition they receive as their main meal of the day. The Paros Staff worked closely with leadership at the Debi Arach Children’s Center to prepare and distribute food packets based on the number of children in each household to all the Debi Arach families. This process has been repeated twice to date.

“We launched the #FeedingArmenia campaign to immediately respond to this important need,” said Peter Abajian, Executive Director of The Paros Foundation. “Our next challenge is how to reopen and operate centers like Debi Arach in a safe and effective manner, while staying true to its core mission. While this challenge presents itself to every organizations, I am proud of the fact that our team is already engaged in these discussions and planning.”

An elderly resident of Tavush’s Verin Tsakhavan Village receives a food packet distribution.

In the town of Nor Geghi, the mayor led an effort to provide food support for his town’s elderly and at risk population. With support from the Nor Keghi Association and its Detroit-based leadership and members, 25 families in need received a large food pack to support them for approximately one month.

Armenia’s current stay-at-home order is slowly being lifted, and the hope is that the virus will not spread, but it is unclear when the need for #FeedingArmenia will cease. While much still remains uncertain, one thing is becoming clearer—Armenia will reopen to a new reality. Masks, greater personal space and distancing and enhanced personal hygiene will all become part of Armenia’s future. To support #FeedingArmenia, or other projects of The Paros Foundation, please visit www.parosfoundation.org.

As stimulus checks start going out and new tax law is in place, we have received a few questions on how this affects your charitable giving in 2020. With the help of The Paros Foundation friend and donor, Eric Nikssarian, CFP® a wealth advisor with EP Wealth Advisors, we were able to understand some of these changes.

• One of the rules that can directly affect your charitable giving is that you can now donate up to $300 ($600 for joint filers) to The Paros Foundation or any bona fide 501(c)3 organization and deduct it above-the-line on your tax return in 2020 directly lowering your taxable income. This new rule is available for taxpayers who do not itemize deductions in 2020. *Please note this rule change is only in effect for 2020 and donations to a Donor Advised Fund do not count for this deduction.
• For those that are itemizing, charitable deduction limits have increased from 60% of adjusted gross income to 100% of adjusted gross income for 2020 only. Charitable deduction limits for corporations have also increased to 25% of their taxable income, up from 10% for 2020 only.  *Please note donations made to Donor Advised Funds again do not count for this incentive. Be advised if you plan to donate property, securities, and other non-cash assets that they may not qualify.
• Lastly, required minimum distributions have been waived for 2020 in most cases. However, individuals who want to donate from their IRA can still make qualified charitable distributions to 501(c)3 organizations, even though there is no incentive to do so.

The silver lining to these trying times is that we can still make a positive impact. If you have any questions about donations feel free to direct your questions to Peter Abajian, Executive Director of The Paros Foundation. If you’d like to contact Paros friend Eric Nikssarian, CFP®, a Wealth Advisor at EP Wealth Advisors, you can email him at enikssarian@epwealth.com.

When the Soviet Pilots took a break, I took over (LOL.)

Today, I am celebrating a rare anniversary from my Los Angeles home.  Thirty years ago this day my size 13 shoes touched Armenian soil for the first time.  Given the global pandemic facing the world, it is a strange time for a “celebration,” but it is a great time for some reflection. Over this last 30 years, I have made 69 trips to Armenia and hold tickets (that are now delayed and rescheduled) for number 70.  A bunch of stuff has changed for sure during this time–Soviet Armenia became The Republic of Armenia and has now undergone a revolution to become the “New Armenia.”

If you know me, you know I have a lot to say about everything, but the story of my first few days in Armenia had some notable highlights I want to share.

I was traveling to Armenia as an envoy aboard a Soviet cargo plane (an Antonov 124 for you aviation buffs, with a gross flight weight of 1 million pounds and a Soviet crew of 7), whose cargo was earmarked as earthquake relief supplies bound for Gyumri.  My job was to oversee the process and ensure the supplies made it to Gyumri without loss or graft.

Here I am on the ground at the airport waiting to begin the unloading process.

I arrived into Zvartnots Airport just outside of Yerevan, Armenia (then still part of the crumbling Soviet Union) at approximately 5:30 a.m. local time on April 22, 1990.  We locked up the airplane and agreed to return the next morning to begin the unloading process.  I asked for a taxi to take me to Hotel Armenia.  A kind officer, who notified me that there were no taxis available, took me to the hotel with his own car.  On the way, as he was zooming along in his old Lada, I asked him where Mt. Ararat was because I wanted to absolutely see our majestic mountain as soon possible.  The officer essentially slammed on his brakes and swerved to the right and looked over his shoulder and pointed to the right and said proudly “there it is!” (in Armenian of course.) It was one of those picture perfect views of Mt. Ararat that remained burned in my memory until today.

I arrived to Hotel Armenia at about 6 a.m. and understood that check-in does not open until 9 a.m.  I settled down in the area in front of the check-in desk and waited with two other guys that kept trying to talk with me in Russian.  Note: At this point in my life, I was working with some very basic Western Armenian that I tried to learn as an undergrad at U of Michigan (Go Blue!).  We really couldn’t communicate, but they pegged me as a Westerner-and I pegged them as hard-core Soviet.  About an hour into our none existent conversation, one of them shows me his Soviet passport. I notice that they were from Uzbekistan.  Hmmm, if memory serves, Uzbek is a Turkic language; so, in my best Turkish I asked them if they understand me.  Much to all of our delights, we had a mutual language after all.  Turns out that these guys were sent from Uzbekistan to Armenia to oversee the construction of a housing project in the earthquake zone as part of the massive Soviet response to the 1988 Spitak Earthquake.  Who the hell would have ever thought that my first meaningful conversation in Armenia, would be in Turkish, with two Soviet Uzbeks!

April 23 was spent at the airport with stories to fill 10 more posts at some later date.

The streets were filled with people in the procession to the Armenian Genocide Memorial.

Just outside of the Armenian Genocide Monument on the 75th.

Near the eternal flame inside the Armenian Genocide Monument.

The next day was April 24.  It just so happened that it was the 75th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.  It was a very powerful day.  I connected with one of my friends who was studying in Armenia, and we made the pilgrimage to the Armenian Genocide Monument at Tsitsernakaberd.  The local buzz was that on that day, one million people visited the monument.  Seeing the massive parade of the elderly, freedom fighters, families and children, I could believe that number. When we arrived to pay our respects, the flowers around the eternal flame were already five feet high by 12 noon.  I never thought that I would have the honor of visiting Tsitsernakabert on exactly April 24 two other occasions in 2007 with my wife and daughters, and on April 24, 2015 to commemorate the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

I made a new friend at dinner one evening at Hotel Armenia.

Thinking back, when Armenia emerged as an independent country, we fought to keep its people alive and the country from collapse or being invaded by one of its hostile neighbors.  Later, my work with The Paros Foundation allowed me to engage Armenia and her people directly through humanitarian and development work.  Now, thirty years later, I am kind of proud to report my Armenian is a bit better and so is Hayastan!  As we all stay at home this April 24th and commemorate the 105 anniversary of Turkey’s failure to exterminate our people, plan YOUR first or next trip to the homeland.  Figure out how you and your family can connect and make it a reality.  Be safe and go wash your hands.

Together with the head of the consolidated community in Berd we are working on #FeedingArmenia. In the 17 villages and towns in the Berd area, there is some 800 people including the elderly and disabled, who are in urgent need of food. With the stay at home mandates from the government, the people in these border villages can no longer work, resulting in a lack of food and other essentials for survival. Donate today and make a difference for someone in Armenia today.

Food packs from the March distribution. With additional funds, more necessary food packs can be delivered.

As the Covid-19 Virus impacts people around the world, I would like to update the Paros community regarding the pandemic’s effects on Armenia and Paros’ work in the homeland.

• To the best of our knowledge, our supporters, beneficiaries and
  staff are safe and healthy.
• Armenia has more than 700 cases of the virus. Seven people have passed away. Armenia is in the midst of a national stay at home order. Police are enforcing this mandate with the hope of containing the spread. All none essential work has stopped throughout Armenia including construction.
• Our team is working from their homes and respecting the seriousness of this pandemic, while strategizing and planning for the lifting of the stay at home order. At the Debi Arach Children’s Center in Gyumri, we have committed to continue paying our staff during the closure, our on-staff psychologist is checking in with the children regularly, and we are providing food packages for all families of Debi Arach with guidelines on safety protocols for receiving and cleaning the delivered items.
• In the United States, The Paros Team is also respecting the stay at home order and are preparing for the future – Armenia will need our support more than ever, once this virus impact subsides. We continue to accept new contributions, new project submissions and inquiries.

Please…stay healthy and be cautious,

Peter J. Abajian
Executive Director

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We are dedicated to providing consistent meals, psychological support, and structured in-home learning to the youth. Although the facility is currently closed, we are working hard to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of all students and staff.

• To our knowledge, the direct school community are safe and virus-free.
• We have committed to continue paying our staff during the closure.
• We are working closely with our on-staff psychologist, who is checking in with the kids each week to help them navigate their lives during this challenging time.
• We want to make sure the students still receive consistent, adequate nutrition so we are providing food packages for all families of Debi Arach with guidelines on safety protocols for receiving and cleaning the items.

The need for our help in Armenia is greater than ever. Please consider supporting our intense and comprehensive efforts to make a major positive impact during this trying time by using the link below to donate to Debi Arach. We wish our supporters, families, and staff great health, friendship, love, and….patience!

About Debi Arach

To date, the center has already had several important successes. At least nine children have been taken out of boarding schools, attend our center and now live back at home with their families. Many of the children who were receiving poor grades in school are now achieving top scores. The children have become socially well adjusted and much healthier than before with the continued consumption of multi-vitamins and a daily well-balanced meal. Staff trainings have begun with an academic counsel of professionals from the United States and Armenia to ensure that the children are receiving the best care, treatment, and methods for their development.

Not a great photo, but here we are in Gyumri with our friend and partner, Vahan Tumasyan from the Shirak Center NGO.

The Paros team just got back from Gyumri yesterday, where we selected three more families to be moved from “domiks” into apartments.  This makes six families we have selected and will move this month thanks to the generous support of the Jack Youredjian Family Foundation, and 17 families in total to date.  24 people including two people with disabilities, three seniors, two single moms, one soldier and 10 young children (five of which will now be kept out of boarding schools!) are moving to new apartments in the coming couple of weeks.  The process by which this program operates, and how family selections are made is something I am often asked about, and something our team often discusses, argues about and loses sleep over.  Here’s the deal–I don’t promise that this post will be fun and exciting, but I am going to try and make it informational at the least:

The Domik Problem:

Gayane Matevosyan (age 7) was awoken by a rat attack in her bed.

There is a ton of information in our Purchase a Home projects on our site about the domiks.  Essentially, 30 years ago, following the Spitak Earthquake (about 35,000 people dead and more than 100,000 homeless), moving into empty overseas shipping containers was a good idea.  Fast forward to 2019, these temporary shelters have turned into literally a house of horrors.  Rats, wild dogs, lice add to the grief these people face.  I would estimate that 99% of these domiks do not have a normal bathroom nor bathing facilities.  Some don’t have running water.  All of them are freezing in the winter and scorching in the summer.  Gayane, who is seven years old, woke up last week in her bed from a rat attack.  She is one of the children who we are moving into a new apartment with her family.  As I said, these domiks are literally a house of horrors.

The Matevosyan domik has no running water and a fair amount of smoke from the wood burning heater.

How can there still be a couple of thousand families living in these conditions, when the government says they have now provided all the families that lost homes in the earthquake an apartment?  The answer to this question is a bit complicated and best discussed over drinks.  First, the government developed a list of every family that was living in government provided housing.  These are the families that ultimately were provided new housing.  If they were living in Gyumri and paying rent, or living in a single family home, or not registered to a specific apartment, they didn’t qualify.  Secondly, through the decades, these families have grown.  It may have been the case 30 years ago that a newly married family with two small children lost their apartment.  30 years later, those children have grown up, perhaps have gotten married, and now have families of their own.  Even if that family received a two bedroom apartment because that is what they lost 30 years ago, how could three families of 10 or 12 people be expected to live in that new apartment.  In this situation, typically one or two of those families would stay in domiks and one would take the apartment.  Finally, back in the day under old leadership, there was a healthy portion of corruption when it came to rebuilding apartments, distributing new apartment and distributing apartment certificates (basically cash certificates to allow one to purchase an apartment on the free market.)  This too left many families with no housing options.

The Apartment:

When we have donor funding in place, our team hits the ground running in Gyumri and works with list.am, Gyumri real estate brokers, and searches through apartment complexes in the Mush II neighborhood for apartments for sale.  The apartments we help secure need to be free of debt and encumbrances and be eligible for resale on the free market.  We also avoid buying apartments from people who do not have a plan on where they are going to live (i.e. we don’t want to contribute to the domik problem in Gyumri.) If the apartments need to be remodeled or if the family needs some basic furniture or appliances, we try and outfit the apartment to the extent our budget permits.  In the past, we have purchased studio, one, two and three bedroom apartments for families depending on the family’s needs.

The Purchase Process:

At the time of contract signing, we bring the entire family to the State Notary Service to have them sign the Purchase Contract with the Seller (nope, no escrow service in Armenia yet!)  We provide the stack of cash to the purchasing family, and they then slide it across the table to the sellers.  The Notary verifies the transaction and the beneficiary family is now legal owner of the new apartment.  At the same sitting, the beneficiary family signs a gift agreement with The Paros Foundation that indicates they are obliged to live in their new apartment until their youngest child turns 18 or for 10 years (whichever is longer.)  They cannot rent, sell or live elsewhere without our permission, or we can take the apartment away from them.  Our goal with this is to ensure a new start for this family.  Secondly, the family agrees to give us their old domik so our friends at the Shirak Center can tear it down and make certain no onewill ever live in those unbearable conditions again.  Then, we help submit the signed purchase contract to the State Cadastre so the family can pick up their new deed in a few days.  Once this is completed, our Shirak Center friends help move the family into their new apartment and the domik tear down begins.

The Family Selection Process:

Family selection is the tough part of this process.  We are not playing God, but sometimes it feels like we are.  How can you look at someone living in a trash heap with rats and pass that family over for another?  It is tough and I think some of my white hair is because of this project.  O.K.  Here is the process we follow.  First, we depend on advice and guidance from Vahan Tumasyan at the Shirak Center NGO.  He is the expert in Gyumri on these families.  Together, with Vahan and our Paros colleagues, we have probably been in 200+ domiks in Gyumri over the last five years. Some of these visits have been to help distribute firewood or food through our other humanitarian projects in Gyumri. Second, we sometimes depend on direction from a donor.  Sometimes we are asked to find a family with lots of children to move; and sometimes, the decision is left to us.  Vahan typically helps us line up several families to visit so we can vet and shorten the list.

The Boghosian Family outside of their domik following the news they would be receiving an apartment in the coming days.

Here are a couple of guidelines we follow:  First, the family has to be willing to surrender their domik to us so we can tear it down.  If they won’t, then we pass them over.  It is hard to believe, but it has happened.  Second, the family has to be trying at some level to work or care for themselves, rather than sitting around waiting for handouts.  I know this sounds harsh, but if you have two families with three kids each, which are you going to support?  The family who’s mother picks potatoes seasonally and the dad that collects recyclables to buy his family bread? Or the family with the mom and dad that sit at home and say there is no work to be found?  Third, while visiting families, we look for signs that they can be successful in their new apartments.  If their domik is as clean as the conditions permit, this is an indication that they would care for their apartment in a similar fashion.  If things in their domik are organized, this again is a potential indicator of future success.  The same indicators exist and stand out with the relationship between the parent or parents and their children.  If there is any indication that there is a strong tie to education for their children, this too helps in our vetting process.  Finally, the family has to have some income to be able to pay the bills in their new apartment.  This income can be pensions, salary, support from family outside of Armenia, etc.  The realities of what these people go through on a daily basis have distorted their family situations to an extreme.  Our goal again, is to provide a beneficiary family with a home so that their family would be successful in living what one might call a more normal life.

In closing, I think it is important to state as part of this last trip to Gyumri, we visited several of the families that have previously benefited from our Purchase A Home project and they were all doing great!  It was absolutely wonderful seeing families and children that looked well, apartments that were clean and so many smiles.  A great big thanks to everyone that has supported this life changing project in the past.