Nairi Krafian, a young Armenian-American volunteer has established a project called Oknooshoon in Armenia, which is literally a hybrid of the words help (oknoutyoun) and dog (shoun) in Armenian. As a pre-veterinary student who is passionate about both her homeland and animals, her goal is to improve the public perception, and in turn the quality of life, for rescued dogs in Armenia. Nairi has partnered with The Paros Foundation in order to introduce dog therapy in Yerevan, help provide education to improve the public perception of stray and rescued dogs and minimize their poor treatment.

Oknooshoon aims to improve the human-canine bond in Armenia, to benefit both populations simultaneously. This project will implement animal therapy for children in need with rescue dogs trained as therapy animals. Phase one of Oknooshoon’s Animal Therapy Program was a pilot in which the therapy dogs were trained as adults, lived at the shelter, and were handled by shelter personnel. Phase two is a second pilot in which rescue dogs will be trained as puppies, raised and handled by Oknooshoon employees in a home. This change will create a more sustainable and effective program, with the dogs being trained at a young age, living in clean homes, and receiving individualized attention. Phase two will also include research to determine the effectiveness of this therapy method for children, education to improve animal welfare, and efforts to strengthen Oknooshoon’s team and business model.

$24,000 is needed in order to fund this project. The costs include handler training education, dog training supplies, transportation, veterinary care, administrative supplies, employee compensation, and organizational development expenses. In addition, Nairi will be attending the Watson Institute Program in Colorado in order to improve and expand Oknooshoon’s capacity.

The National Poetry Recitation Contest (NPRC) was created in 2010 by a Peace Corps Volunteer and her Armenian counterpart living in Hrazdan. The goal of the National Poetry Recitation Contest is to create an opportunity for Armenian students in grades 7-12 to enhance their spoken English, critical thinking and public speaking skills by studying and reciting poems and speeches in English. Students also develop a valuable peer network of fellow English speakers from all over Armenia.

Kurtan is an isolated village with 1,825 residents in the Stepanavan area of Armenia’s Lori Region. The facility is housed rent free in a building, which also houses the village administration.

The Medical Center consists of four rooms (only two of which are currently able to be used) totaling approximately 770 square feet. The Center needs a new roof over its portion of the building, new windows and doors, a bathroom and a heating system.

Any partial funds received for this project will be first used to replace the damaged roof. Then funds will be allocated to the remainder of the renovation of the space. The Paros Foundation team will work with the village administration to ensure that they support the project in as many ways as possible including donated materials, free labor and/or support services.

It is anticipated that the repairs to the medical center will take approximately 3 months depending on weather conditions.

More than 1,200 children live in Armenia’s 15 orphanages. These facilities provide for the children’s basic needs, but their limited budgets do not allow these children to participate in visits to popular historical sites, an amusement park or concert, or attend a cultural event.

Armenia’s orphan children should have the opportunity to experience popular cultural events, exhibits, and excursions in Armenia, or simply have a fun afternoon or activity that they normally would not be able to experience. Many different activities and excursions can be organized for these children. The extent of the activity or trip is directly related to the sponsorship amount. For sponsorships amounts between $250 -$750 approximately 20 children and an appropriate number of chaperons will be able participate in a memorable activity. Please consider supporting multiple excursions for these children.

The Paros Foundation staff and volunteers will organize and oversee the excursion/activity. Opportunities to sponsor excursions for orphanages serving both disabled and non-disabled children exist. Whenever possible, our staff will work with the destination for the excursion to secure group pricing and/or discounts.

Recycling in border villages in the Tavush region is currently extremely limited; as a result, plastic and other trash often goes uncollected and liters the communities. When it is collected, the waste is often put into landfills or it is burned.

The Paros Foundation seeks to partner with the Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities NGO, or ‘ISSD’ to implement a small scale recycling initiative in ten border villages in the Tavush region, with the hopes of eventual expansion. The proposed project involves going to several schools and providing specially marked recycling bins for paper and plastic. The children will then be educated on the benefits of recycling and why it is important. In order to provide incentive, the school whom collects the most recycling will receive a prize of their choice up to a certain cash value. Schools will be given approximately 2 months to collect the recycling, when it will then be picked up and transferred to the proper recycling facilities.

The project’s ultimate goal is to educate communities on recycling, and give them the opportunity to try it themselves. The project and related school trainings will be conducted in two trips.

If after the two month contest period the project is considered successful, Paros will seek to expand into more schools in the Tavush region.

The border village of Movses is located in a remote and isolated part of the Tavush Region in the Berd administrative area. More than 1,500 residents live in Movses and its kindergarten currently serves 37 children.

The kindergarten has been partially renovated over the years, but these have only served as temporary fixes. The roof leaks, the heating system is not sufficient to heat the building properly and the bathrooms are a disaster.  The kindergarten will be completely renovated including the roof, heating system, doors and windows, bathrooms and kitchen.  In addition, the classrooms, sleep rooms and other interior spaces will receive a complete cosmetic renovation including new lighting, paint and flooring.  Additional furniture will also be provided as necessary.

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 185 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.

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 185 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.

Following the 1988 Spitak Earthquake, tens of thousands of people were left homeless in the City of Gyumri. Many of these families took refuge in the overseas shipping containers (domiks) that were shipped into Armenia loaded with humanitarian relief supplies, or in condemned buildings. An entire generation of children has grown up in deplorable conditions, often times with no running water and little or no heat. The Armenian government has provided most of the families that lost their homes in the Earthquake with new housing units.

As people moved out of those makeshift housing units, others moved in. The 2,500 or so families that remain are Gyumri’s desolate families, who are not in line to receive a government provided apartment. Many of these families are comprised of single mothers, multiple children and/or the disabled.

This project will identify suitable needy families who can be moved into a new apartment and can demonstrate that they can afford their monthly utilities, etc. This is a sustainable model in that families that have been moved into permanent housing in the past have had a high degree of success maintaining their families and their new homes.

The Sahakyan family lives in an isolated domik located about 12 feet from the railroad tracks.  Karen, his wife Anna and their two daughters have lived in this domik their entire married lives. Anna does not let her girls play outside for fear that they will get too close to the railroad tracks and get hit by a passing train.  Karen works at the Gyumri Central Market to support his family.

Once the move is complete, the make shift housing unit will be destroyed to prevent its future occupancy.

Jean-Marie & Lori Atamian recently announced their sixth major gift of $100,000 to The Paros Foundation’s Prosperity on the Border Initiative. This contribution will be used to rebuild a large two-story school building in the village of Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur (population 1,380) (“NKA”). NKA was the most heavily shelled village on the Tavush border during the war for the liberation of Artsakh.

This investment is the latest infrastructure project underwritten by the Atamians in NKA. Specifically, since 2013, the Atamians have financed the reconstruction of the village’s medical center, kindergarten, secondary school (3 large two-story buildings), emergency services building and water pipeline. The Atamians have also awarded over 20 individual family agricultural and home renovation grants to improve the standard of living of numerous households. The impressive economic progress of NKA has prompted the Atamians to make additional long-term commitments to ensure the village’s continued growth and prosperity for future generations.