Currently home to 286 households and 955 people, the village of Baghanis was established in the fifth century and is situated in the Tavush region of Armenia. The village is adjacent to the Republic of Azerbaijan, sharing a 2 km-long border. Today, the residents make a living by farming and tending to their livestock. Now, economic development and opportunities for work are essential to continue improving the conditions in this border village. 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.

Andranik S. and his family have been identified as one of the families who are in need of additional support in order to help their agribusiness grow. Their family consists of six members including three children. They live in a dangerous area as their home is exposed to Azeri sniper fire. Andranik works as a contract soldier stationed on the border. They currently have a barn, and have requested cows for their agribusiness. As a part of this effort Andranik S. and his family will be provided training and/or business tips for the ensured success of their agribusiness. Frequent visits will be made to the family to track their progress and determine the success of their new venture.

The Kharpert Home for Special Children is an orphanage located in the village of Nor Kharpert serving more than 250 children with varying degrees of developmental disabilities. The orphanage is a state run facility that receives governmental support to provide these vulnerable children with their basic care and education.

Excursions for these children to amusement parks and/or other appropriate venues provide these children with both valuable community experience and needed recreation. Children with disabilities in Armenia are generally kept sheltered from society. These children do not attend school, but rather attend classes at the orphanage. It is important for both these children and society for these children to experience community life.

For each donation of $250, approximately 20 children and an appropriate number of care provides will be able to go on an excursion to Yerevan at Victory Park, or another appropriate venue for a morning or afternoon of activities including transportation, admission and snacks. Please consider supporting multiple excursions for these children.

The Taron II community in the city of Vanadzor was built after the devastating 1988 earthquake. Several housing blocks were constructed including a community kindergarten. Currently, the kindergarten is housed in two-section building and in need of minor renovations.

Fortunately the building already has a source of heat and no issues with the roof. Sponsorship of this project will help start renovation work with the kitchen and cafeteria area, as it is the most in need. Our goal is to continue work at this kindergarten once we complete the kitchen and cafeteria renovations.

Representatives of The Paros Foundation have visited more than 100 schools throughout Armenia. While some schools have either been renovated thanks to the Armenian government or as a result of the generosity of international donors, many remain in deplorable conditions and have little hope of being renovated in the near future. These conditions affect both the ability for students to learn, as well as the health of students and teachers. How is a student supposed to learn if there are not proper desks, chairs or windows in the classroom?

One of the schools recently identified in need of a complete renovation is located in the large village of Ljashen in the Gegharkunik region at Lake Sevan. Ljashen Village has a population of 5,000 and one local school. About 300 students attend this run down school.

The Paros Foundation will directly oversee the renovation of a classroom at this school including doors, flooring, lighting, paint, electrical, and furniture as needed. The heating system was replaced 10 years ago by Developmental Services for Armenia, a California based humanitarian organization, and is still fully functioning. Whenever possible, the school, students and their parents will be incorporated into the classroom remodel project to help build a sense of community and personal investment.

Homeland Handicrafts(HH) was founded in order to create jobs- jobs for mostly women – in the regions of Armenia. HH develops market-oriented products that are based on techniques the women know and materials they have. We actively market these items through fairs and shops in Yerevan as well as through export. We still have a lot to do both on the product development and marketing sides in order to reach our goal of creating dozens of jobs for women in the regions of Armenia.

Prototype Fund: As women in villages generally do not have a capital base, it is necessary for HH to purchase the materials need to make the initial prototypes of products. Several prototypes are often necessary to make. The artisan contributes her work to this effort.

Workshop Participation: Product development is a time and work intensive task, and even more so when the artisans in the villages do not have the exposure to the market, not in Yerevan, and not abroad. This requires frequent visits to the villages where the artisans live and work in order to follow up on product concepts- making sure they understand the design and quality requirements, price calculations, labeling, packaging, etc. This means that the volunteers in HH must make frequent trips to each project that we cooperate with. This is very demanding on time and expenses, but is part of the job creation task we have taken up ourselves.

Promotion Fairs: It is important to participate in numerous fairs during the year for several reasons: 1) to sell products, 2) to introduce the artisans to the market, getting feedback on design, price, presentation, etc., 3) identifying potential wholesale customers and contacts for developing more long term business and export relationships.

Marketing Tools: To create jobs, HH must have an active marketing profile. Banners, brochures and flyers are needed to use/distribute at fairs and in other public forums. The www.homelandhandicrafts.org website is another strong marketing tool that will be kept up to date from showcasing the HH effort.

Homeland Handicrafts (HH) travels extensively throughout the regions of Armenia to identify, cultivate and follow up artisans, so that they might make products that can be sold and thus create a sustainable livelihood for them. We keep the expenses down as far as possible by sleeping on couches and eating cheap. Still, we need to buy bus tickets or pay for gas in order to get to these places. This comes out of our private pockets. We would appreciate support to be able to do our voluntary work to create jobs in the regions of Armenia. Funds are needed to underwrite transportation costs to help HH visit and work with these artisans.

Gyumri is Armenia’s second largest city with the poorest population, including single mothers and the elderly. Following the devastating 1988 Spitak Earthquake, in which more than 25,000 people lost their lives and more than 100,000 people were left homeless, Gyumri’s residents did whatever they could to find temporary shelter. This included moving into “domiks,” the overseas shipping containers in which earthquake related humanitarian goods were shipped to Armenia. 24 years following the earthquake, about 4,000 poverty stricken families remain in various forms of temporary housing. In addition to inadequate housing, unemployment and rampant poverty, Gyumri’s people are also faced with extreme winters.
The harsh winters and extreme poverty lead to people picking through trash to find something that they can burn to keep warm and cook food for their families. Due to the intense cold weather and toxic fumes, children often get sick and are unable to attend school.

This effort will ensure that 90 families in Gyumri will receive fuel for heating and cooking through firewood for month’s period. Our partner for this project, Shirak Center NGO, will help distribute the firewood to the families.

Share-a-Pair, a project to get shoes to Armenia’s disadvantaged children needs your help!

Share-a-Pair was launched in Los Angeles by sisters, Kristen and Bridget Abajian. Soon thereafter Sophia Dilsizian joined in by leading the efforts in California’s South Bay community. A modest initial goal of raising enough funds to purchase, ship and distribute 1,000 pairs of shoes to Armenia’s needy children was quickly realized in 2011. Having contacted a major U.S. based shoe manufacturer, Share-a-Pair entered into a partnership to distribute a total of 75,000 pairs of new shoes in Armenia. These shoes were distributed to children in need, children with disabilities and children living in the most economically disadvantaged villages in Armenia. In total, Share-a-Pair has distributed shoes in more than 100 villages and 13 cities in Armenia. Witnessing first hand the difficult conditions in these villages, Share-a-Pair’s team identified the important need for warm winter boots and launched Operation Winter Boots.

Share-a-Pair is able to purchase one quality pair of winter boots for $20. Donations are welcomed in any amount. Donations of new winter boots in all sizes are also appreciated and welcomed. Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions and be sure to visit us on facebook. Thank you!

The Kharpert Home for Special Children is an orphanage located in the village of Nor Kharpert serving more than 250 children with varying degrees of developmental disabilities. The orphanage is a state run facility that receives governmental support to provide these vulnerable children with their basic care and education.

Excursions for these children to amusement parks and/or other appropriate venues provide these children with both valuable community experience and needed recreation. Children with disabilities in Armenia are generally kept sheltered from society. These children do not attend school, but rather attend classes at the orphanage. It is important for both these children and society for these children to experience community life.

For each donation of $250, approximately 20 children and an appropriate number of care provides will be able to go on an excursion to Yerevan at Victory Park, or another appropriate venue for a morning or afternoon of activities including transportation, admission and snacks. Please consider supporting multiple excursions for these children.

The town of Talin, with a population of about 5,400 people, is located in the Aragatsotn Region of Armenia and is considered one of the oldest residential areas of the region. Currently, Talin houses a music school in a building in poor condition without any proper practice or performance spaces for its 120 students and 15 teachers. The building lacks access to proper health and safety standards, and severely limits the school’s dedicated staff from doing their jobs. These horrible conditions also prevent the students’ ability to learn. The town of Talin is in need of a modernized school, offering a safe, comfortable and appropriate environment to study and teach classical and folk instruments and music.

The reconstruction will be a complete remodel of the existing building consisting of new individual practice and classrooms for students, western toilets and construction of a concert hall with ample seating. With these renovations the Talin Music School can properly assume its leadership capacity in the community. Furthermore, the professional environment of a newly renovated facility will encourage students to reach higher standards of excellence in their musical ambitions including: education, performance, and creative service. A positive and more creatively stimulating environment will also help instill confidence in performers, teachers, and the Talin community. Furthermore, the town of Talin has committed to support this project to the extent that they are able.

The school will be completed in three phases: The construction of the new concert hall, the renovation of the third floor and finally, the renovation of the second floor.

The town of Nor Hachen is located in the Kotayk region of Armenia and has a population of about 10,000 people. The town was named Nor Hachen in memory of the historic Armenian town of Hachen in Cilicia.

In 1973, a memorial to the Hachen resistance was erected in the town. The memorial is home to the museum of “History of the Armenians of Cilicia.” Every year, on the 2nd Sunday of October, Armenians from all over the world, mainly descendants of the historical town of Hachen, gather to commemorate the 1920 Hachen Resistance. The museum houses many important historical artifacts, including relics from the Armenian Genocide.

The museum, established in the 1970’s, would greatly benefit from additional funds for basic upkeep, preservation of artifacts, renovations to the physical space and operational costs. Sponsorship of this project will help care for these needs and improve the museums condition bringing more and more visitors to Nor Hachen to learn about the rich history of the Armenian people.

One such example if the story go Aguile Tatoulian. During the Armenian Genocide, she shaved off her hair and dressed herself up in men’s fatigues in order to protect herself and defend her city of 35,000, which was being raped and pillaged by the Turks. She was shot in her left rib and lived with that bullet for 67 years. She was 1 of 9 women who survived the massacres of Hachen in 1918. A couple of months after she survived, she wrote and staged a play to raise relief funds for survivors. Before she died in 1985, she requested she not be buried with a Turkish bullet -it sits in the Nor Hachen museum.