GOALS was founded in 2014 after Peace Corps volunteer, Zach Theiler, was inspired by author, soccer coach and Harvard Hall of Fame athlete Andrea Montalbano’s visit to Armenia to promote women’s football. Andrea spoke about the importance of sport and youth development, specifically in empowering young women in the United States. Afterward, Zach Theiler teamed up with co-founder Victoria Dokken and gathered a team of Armenians and fellow Peace Corps Volunteers to create GOALS, with the aim of empowering young women throughout Armenia using soccer as a vehicle for change. We hope to give young women the chance to play soccer through GOALS Leagues, Summer Camps and After-school Clubs. Through their sport for social impact games, which are used in all programming, GOALS strives to improve critical thinking, empathy and create spaces for difficult conversations around gender equality, diversity, etc. Finally, GOALS trains coaches in use of sport for social impact curriculum so that its impact can be spread throughout the country.

We rely on donations for most of our work in Armenia. In 2017 we are expanding our reach and opening three new leagues in the north, in addition to the current league in southern Armenia. With your help, we can create new opportunities for an additional 300 girls! Furthermore, we are moving toward a co-ed program, which focuses more on dialogue using sport for social impact curriculum to bridge the stark gender divide between youths throughout the country.

You can decide how to support us! Choose between a league, a camp, a team, an after-school club, or any combination of them. A small donation really goes a long way!

Sponsor a League
Our football leagues are designed to give young women the chance to play soccer, build confidence and teamwork skills, as well as change public perception of women’s sports. Leagues consist of a minimum of four teams with nine players on each team aged 12-17. Each team is headed by an Armenian coach, who signs a contract committing to one-year of training their team a minimum once per week of the season (March – May; September – November) for one hour per session. Teams travel and play one competitive game per week. Sponsoring a league provides all travel costs, referees, nurses, venue space, and all the soccer equipment needed in order to hold trainings; jerseys, socks, footballs, cones, and pennies for an entire league. – $3,000

Sponsor a Camp
GOALS summer camps are designed to create an atmosphere of excitement and new opportunities for girls in the community. We implement summer camps in new areas where GOALS hopes to operate on a longer-term basis, in order to excite the community and motivate the girls to continue playing soccer. Our summer camps are five days, running from 9am to approximately 3pm. Each day consists of sport for social impact games which use sport to talk about gender equity, tolerance, diversity, human rights, etc. These games are followed by technical drills, lunch, and a leadership seminar comprised of strong, local guest speakers and/or leadership curriculum. – $1,500

Sponsor a Team
Teams are designed to help girls build new friendships, learn how to work in a team, and play competitive football in a competitive atmosphere. Using Coaches Across Continents curriculum our girls also have the opportunity to discuss social, gender, and tolerance issues in their communities. GOALS currently has 27 active teams throughout four different leagues. Each team needs coaches, equipment and travel. Sponsoring a team supports these needs for two full seasons/one year. – $500

Sponsor a Player
Sponsoring a player is an easy way to make a big impact through a small donation. This donation will pay for one girls uniform, socks, and travel to competitive games – $50

The Paros Foundation launched the Debi Arach Children’s Center in Gyumri, Armenia on April 15, 2015 with the help of generous donors. The center, which provides 150 children each week the necessary academic, psychological, social and humanitarian support, has since been a source of positivity in this city. The residents of Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city have endured very devastating realities since the tragic 1988 Spitak Earthquake. More than 100,000 residents were left homeless, and plagued with unemployment and rampant poverty for years to come. In turn, the fate of children in Gyumri has also been affected. Dealing with the difficulty of finding means to feed and care for their families, many parents are unable to provide their children with the proper guidance, supervision, educational aid and the financial resources for them to excel in school and have successful futures. The Debi Arach Children’s Center, which in Armenian means “moving forward,” helps these socially vulnerable children through a holistic approach providing them with both humanitarian and educational support. The center provides counseling and group therapy with a psychologist on staff, homework help and tutoring for almost every subject the children learn in school including English, Math, Art/Design, and Computer classes. Additionally, they are served a nutritious meal everyday, helping them receive the calories and/or nutrients they would otherwise not have. Furthermore, the Center addresses a very important hygienic need by providing the children in attendance with supervised bathing facilities. The goal is to help hundreds of children develop a vision for a successful future, and to give them the skills they need to reach these goals. This project is impacting the lives of hundreds of socially vulnerable children by helping them gain the guidance and support they need in order to create greater future opportunities, and become successful individuals and good citizens.

To date, the center has already had several important successes. Three children have been taken out of boarding schools and brought to 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 more healthier than before. 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.

Currently in its second year, the center is working on funding year three and raising additional funds in order to develop and add to the programs and classes offered with the ability to hire more educators, and get more supplies, and equipment. Funds will also be used to supplement daily activities, hold forums for guest speakers and provide educational and vocational training opportunities. $65,000 is needed to cover operating costs for the Center. In January of 2017, Debi Arach successfully launched its first program within its Vocational Training Center, teaching children computer programming, 3d printing and robotics curriculum. The goal of this newest component is to provide these children with marketable job skills in order to help them work themselves out of poverty.

The Armenian Dental Society of California has partnered with The Paros Foundation in order to help its mobile dental clinic bring dental care to poverty stricken communities throughout Armenia.  Dental hygiene is commonly overlooked in many of these communities due to several reasons. Dental supplies and dental care are either very hard to find or too expensive for residents in these villages to afford.

Jack and Azniv Bayramyan and Family have generously funded a challenge matching grant to support this project since its relaunch in 2016. Sponsorship of this project will help raise the funds needed to keep the mobile clinic on the road providing its mobile services. Two dentists from Armenia travel along with the mobile clinic and provide dental care for village residents. Dentists from the US will have the opportunity to join the two local dentists on a volunteer basis. $2,500 will help keep the mobile clinic working for one month. Dental care provided by the mobile clinic will include basic child oral care and education, cleanings, fillings and other basic care.

Many of Armenia’s small villages, towns and communities have a low average annual income and high levels of unemployment. Often time villagers have a difficult time financially providing for their families due to the lack of work. The establishment of small commercial enterprises for families proved to be a model that has worked to increase household income and help develop the village’s economy.

Sponsorship of this project will help provide needy villagers with the opportunity to care for their families and to help improve the village’s economy.

The Karapetyan family has been identified as one of the families who are in need of additional support. Their family consists of six members including Hasmik, her husband who has become disabled due to a car accident, and their four children. They live in poverty as neither parent is able to work. In order to help this family get back on their feet, they will be set up with a small agribusiness. As a part of this effort the Karapetyan family will be provided training and/or business tips for the ensured success of their venture. Frequent visits will be made to the family to track their progress and determine the success of their new agribusiness.

The Ghoghanj Children’s Center located in the Kentron of Yerevan provides afterschool and summer school programs for approximately 75 children every month. Children who attend the Center are loosely defined as “at risk.” These children typically come from very poor households, often times with a single head of household, who cannot pay for such assistance. The goal of the Ghoghanj Children’s Center is to provide the necessary academic, psychological and social support to ensure that the children attending mature to well adjusted, successful, young adults.

In order to further impact more “at-risk” children, the Center has identified a need for this model to be replicated and offered to other communities in Armenia. Through the generous support of the Dadourian Foundation, a second center for “at-risk” children was opened in the Nor Nork neighborhood of Yerevan to provide support to 75 additional children annually. The new center provides students the same core classes (English, Russian, Computer, Design, Painting, Theater and Dance) as the Ghoghanj Children’s Center – Kentron. The goal of this project is to broaden the services offered to socially vulnerable children and families in other communities and provide them with the proper support and guidance needed to excel in school and become self-confident and respectful young adults.

Currently, The Paros Foundation is looking for donors who will help keep this important Center running in the 2017-2018 school year. Amount will include rent, utilities, teacher salaries, maintenance and additional improvements, and supplies.

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.

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

Students attending schools in Armenia do not easily have access to Western/English language literature. In the last decade, English has steadily become the most popular foreign language in Armenia. Students throughout the country are learning how to read, write and speak English and could really benefit from another means by which to learn and practice the language further. In addition, reading can significantly increase students’ vocabularies as well as strengthen their creativity. These books are not readily available or affordable, especially in rural and impoverished villages, towns and cities.

Peter Chelebian (16), an Armenian-American from Los Angeles has recently come up with a brilliant idea to help children in Armenia gain access to terrific literature. He hopes to use his passion for books to help make a difference in the lives of his fellow brothers and sisters.

Peter will be helping lead the effort in raising funds to place small English literature libraries, each stocked with 50 important literary works. The bookshelves housing the books will be built in Armenia. In the last year Peter has successfully helped raise enough funding to place three libraries throughout Armenia. $2,025 ($675 each) is needed in order to complete three full libraries in three different locations throughout Armenia. Donations of books (in excellent condition) are welcomed alongside monetary support for this important project.

Nor Luyce’s program aims at stabilizing emotions, forming values, self-esteem and self-confidence of all our mentees, arming them with knowledge and skills, which will provide them with an opportunity to take steps toward a sustainable future, while breaking the stereotype that getting married as the fastest way of getting out of the orphanage. Nor Luyce is trying to empower teenagers with their own voice by providing mentoring relationships and applicable skills.

In order to improve the future and career opportunities for girls from socially disadvantage families and orphanages, we created a 3-phase, 3-year mentoring program that impacts approximately 40 girls a year. Currently, we are seeking funding for our first phase, which will provide a mentoring to 15 new Nor Luyce beneficiaries, aged 14.

Our Mentoring Phase program covers 11 months, during which 15 girls, aged 14, from socially vulnerable families and orphanages receive mentoring. Each mentor-mentee pair meet approximately 40 times for individual meetings as well as partake in 20 group meetings. During our mentoring phase, we also focus on empowering participants to become active community members through service activities, cultural events, and building leadership through various responsibilities such as presenting information to their peers and other organization members. We also offer tutoring services for any participant who is struggling academically.

In order to decrease the likelihood that girls will be trafficked or married off at a young age, we strive to provide teenagers with a positive role model and a strong connection with other girls and prominent community leaders. We focus on career aspirations and how to create the best version of themselves, using the traits, skills, and strengths the participants already possess. We also believe, that in order to empower young girls, we need to have a comprehensive approach to their development, as such following the first phase we then focus on skill-building trainings, career development, and offer scholarships for higher education. As of now, we have twelve girls in a higher education institution.

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 have 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 expenses. Agreements will be signed passing ownership of the apartment to the chosen family, with the stipulation that until their youngest child reaches 18 years of age, the family cannot sell, rent or move. 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.

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

Hakop Hakopian grew up in a domik following his family losing their home in the 1988 Spitak Earthquake.  When he got married, he worked and saved up $700 to purchase his own “domik.”  Hakop’s domik sits beneath a power transformer and he has been told by the electric company that he must move.

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.

Anna Elbakyan and her son, Armen have lived in domik for more than 20 years.  The Paros Foundation staff first met Anna this summer while distributing food packs with The Shirak Center to needy families.  Armen attends the Debi Arach Children’s Center and benefits from their programs.  Anna plays piano and has worked as a piano teacher.  She dreams of the day she might own a piano of her own.  Anna’s husband left for Russia to work while she was pregnant with Armen and never returned.  This small but terrific family would greatly benefit from a new apartment.

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