Packs on Backs Armenia: Debi Arach 2017

The Heros Humanitarian Foundation (HHF), a Los Angeles based non-profit organization, supports children in need and their educational advancement. The organization was founded in 2008 by six Armenian Americans with the belief that no child should be deprived of the essential necessities needed for their education regardless of their socioeconomic status. Their mission is to provide backpacks and school supplies to children living in poverty and from low socioeconomic households around the world. Through their Packs on Backs initiative, HHF hopes to motivate children, help them stay and excel in school, and have successful futures.

The Heros Humanitarian Foundation has partnered with The Paros Foundation to bring their Packs on Backs initiative to Armenia. After the successful distribution of 380 backpacks and school supplies to children in Gyumri and Vanadzor in the summer of 2015, and 225 backpacks to the children at the Kharpert Children’s Home in the summer of 2016, we have decided to continue to work together and impact more children in Armenia.

Our next distribution will be for the kids attending the Debi Arach Children’s Center in Gyumri. Socially vulnerable children attend the center after their school and receive both humanitarian and educational support through a holistic approach. The Paros Foundation established the Debi Arach Children’s Center on April 15, 2015 and has since provided children each week the necessary academic, psychological, social and humanitarian support they need to succeed. Gyumri’s devastating history has left more than 100,000 residents homeless, and plagued with unemployment and rampant poverty. These families often struggle to provide their children with life’s basic necessities; therefore making backpacks and school supplies a distant priority. Children at the center were recipients of backpacks and school supplies during our first distribution in 2015. This distribution will meet the ongoing needs of both current and new children. Our goal is to provide 150 backpacks and school supplies for the children attending the center. A donation of $30 will help obtain a backpack filled with supplies for one child. School supplies will be grade appropriate and include a combination of pencils, pens, pencil cases, notebooks, folders, erasers, sharpeners, glue, scissors, rulers, highlighters, and crayons. In-kind donations of the items listed are also welcomed.