The Paros Foundation opened the Debi Arach Children’s Center in April of 2015. Since then, it has grown to serving more than 200 children and young people on a weekly basis. It’s holistic approach to working intensively with children has positively altered the lives of these children. Because of the Covid 19 pandemic, a number of new safety measures and precautions must be implemented to ensure the safety of the children. These include provide all students and staff with disposable masks, changing the manner in which meals are served to utilizing disposable lunch boxes and cups, creating outdoor classrooms, implementing systematic temperature checks and creating hand sanitizing stations in each classroom. These unexpected expenses were not budgeted into the center’s annual budget, but are essential to keep the children and staff safe.

1. Masks. The center needs approximately 9,000 masks to last through the end of the year. This takes into account half the number of kids until school starts and full occupancy from the start of school until the end of the year. The mask cost for this period will be 9,000 x $.26 or total of $2,340. The center has already purchased 5,000 masks, and needs an additional 4,000 which will cost $1,040. (Total cost $1,040)

2. Food containers. Food for the children will now be served individually rather than family style. This will enable the children to take their meal and go sit someplace socially distanced. We will have space both inside and out for the children to eat. It is worth noting that many of the children really do count on this meal as their primary meal of the day. The need is for 9,000 to go containers. The cost is about 10 cents each so the quantity we need to cover meals through the end of the year is $900.

3. Hand washing. Disposable paper towels will be utilized throughout the center, and the center is also are required to install hand sanitizer stations outside of each classroom. These additions will cost $500 from August to the end of the year.

4. Temperature checks. Two infrared thermometers for temperature checks will be purchased and utilized. They cost about just under $50 each. Total cost is $100.

5. Four pop up tents will enable the center to conduct classes outside until the weather becomes too cold. The cost is $75 each. Total cost is $300.

Total cost for these unexpected items is $2,840.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, schools around the world have been closing and classes have been moving online. For Varanda, a small Armenian village in the Republic of Artsakh on the Azeri border, this is not an option. The village has limited internet access and lacks the appropriate technology to enable online learning. The village school has resorted to holding classes outside, exposed to the elements, to try to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Varanda School has only two dozen students. Its small size has made instructional modernization challenging. Providing schools like these with the proper technology will not only significantly lower the risk of the virus spreading today, but also connect them to the online learning infrastructure for the future.

Support of this project will help obtain 33 tablets for the Varanda School, enough for 20 students, 9 teachers and four extra, should any break. Training on how to properly use the tablets will be provided by the Ohanyan School in Yerevan, Armenia free of charge. The students and their teachers then will be able to connect with online classes at Ohanyan School and an expanding network of other schools, which will be conducting online classes this coming Fall.

Once enough funding is raised to equip the Varanda School with their tablets, this project will expand to include aid to five more projected border villages, which also lack the needed technology to support online learning. All six schools will eventually join remote classes courtesy of the Ohanyan School in Yerevan.

Health care for residents living in Armenia’s remote and/or poverty stricken areas is very hard to find and difficult to afford. Residents in these communities have a high rate of health issues that could otherwise be prevented or cured if they had access to simple medical care. In order to help remedy this unfortunate situation, The Paros Foundation has launched Med-Aid ARMENIA.

Sponsorship of this project will help raise the necessary funds needed to obtain basic medical equipment, supplies and medicine. In-kind donations of any of these items are also welcomed. Furthermore, we specifically need physicians, nurses, pharmacists and more to help our volunteers conduct physical exams and provide basic medical care.

Achajur is a large village with more than 4,500 residents located in Armenia’s Tavush Region. Achajur located very close to the Kayan border crossing with Azerbaijan. The village’s kindergarten currently functions with 100 children attending on the first floor of a two story building. Because of the large population in the village, an additional 100 children are on the waiting list to attend kindergarten, but cannot due to the poor condition of the upstairs of the existing kindergarten. Once renovated, the municipality is prepared to expand the staff and accept at least two additional groups of children into the kindergarten. The renovation of the kindergarten will include the installation of new windows, subflooring, flooring, electrical, plumbing, new bathrooms, heating system and new furniture.

Help us meet our match! We have received challenge grants from two anonymous donors, who are matching donations up to $50,000 combined, which will allow us to donate $100,000 to ArmeniaFund in support of Artsakh with your help!

The Azeri attack on civilian targets throughout Artsakh and parts of Armenia have created a humanitarian crisis. Turkey’s involvement, and that of confirmed jihadist fighters threatens the Armenian nation’s existence. The time is now to support Armenia and Artsakh’s humanitarian needs by joining the worldwide effort to support Armenia Fund. Donate now and donate generously to help our brothers and sisters in this time of need.

All donations made through this link will be matched up to $50,000 regardless of the amount.

or mail checks to the following address with a note saying “challenge grant”:

The Paros Foundation
2217 5th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710

Funds from this challenge grant will be donated to support Armenia Fund in their entirety. For more information about this effort, please contact (310) 400-9061 or email: info@parosfoundation.org.

The purpose of the GLAD ( Girls’ Leadership and Development) camp is to address the often overlooked, but important needs of young girls and help them learn positive ways to cope with stereotypes, anxiety and culturally imposed limitations that have had a negative effect on their daily lives. Due to the success of the initial four (GLAD) Camps, the Margahovit Youth Center is fundraising to implement the camp again, taking lessons and tips from the previous camps, for a different group of participants from Margahovit.

The GLAD Camp will address several needs by teaching the participants negotiation skills, how to participate in community decision-making, work to overcome societal stereotypes, learn their civil rights, and receive basic self-defense and first-aid classes during the camp. This year’s camp will last five days for 20 rural girls in total and will be led by experts focusing on a range of aspects related to emotional and mental health and leaderships skills, including, but not limited to: creating a safe space for discussing these issues, healthy expression of emotion,  journaling,  strengths finding,  personality tests,  and leadership styles. The participants from last year’s GLAD Camp meet monthly for a follow-up club, in part to organize monthly seminars for other youth in the village to pass on what they learned during the camp. The participants from this version of GLAD will participate in these activities as well. The community of Margahovit will contribute significantly in planning, implementation, and follow-up work. Their goal is to help participants become more mentally and emotionally healthy, equip them with the tools they need to handle the difficulties life throws at them, and thus do good in school and become stronger leaders.

In immediate response to the renewed Azeri attacks on civilian populations in the Berd Consolidated Communities of Armenia’s Tavush Region, The Paros Foundation launched an Emergency Reconstruction Fund. Funds raised will be immediately deployed to repair the most severely damaged homes shelled in this recent Azeri attack. Azerbaijan has once again targeted the civilian population in villages along the Armenian border. Many homes in Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur, Aygepar and Chinari received varying degrees of damage. Our goal is to quickly deploy our work crews in the area to not only repair the damage but make improvements to these families’ homes. On July 12, during the midst of the global pandemic surrounding Covid-19, Azerbaijan renewed its attack on Armenia in violation of the ceasefire agreement. Over the next two days, Azerbaijan launched artillery of various calibers at the Armenian civilian populations of several communities within Berd Consolidated Communities of Armenia’s Tavush Region. Families in these villages have experienced material losses on their homes and property. Thankfully, villagers remain safe and there has been no civilian loss of life during this period. While the Armenian government has already visited many to assist, The Paros Foundation’s Emergency Reconstruction Fund will work to not only make repairs to these damaged homes, but, will make substantial improvements for them. The best way for our compatriots to know the diaspora stands with them during this tense time is for us to not slow our work in this area, but to accelerate it by supporting these improvements within their communities. As of July 15, 2020, four Armenian soldiers were killed during the fighting and several have been wounded including one in critical condition. The Armenian army has shot down 10 Azeri combat drones, including a Elbit Hermes 900 UAV with an estimated $30 million price tag. Moreover, two strategic Azeri military posts are now under Armenian control. While the military losses on the Azeri side are reported to be substantial including the death of an Azeri general, Baku was the site of large protests by thousands of Azeris last night calling for war with Armenia.

Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur (NKA) is a village with about 1,100 residents in the Berd area of Armenia’s Tavush Region. This community lives on the border with Azerbaijan under the risk of sniper fire and renewed armed conflict. The Paros Foundation completely renovated this building in 2014 as part of our Paros 100 for 100 Projects for Prosperity campaign. At the time, the kindergarten had fewer than 20 children in attendance. Thanks to a doubling of the birthrate of children in the village starting in 2013, the number of children in the village continues to increase with each passing year, and now the kindergarten is too small to accommodate the 45 children currently in attendance. To rectify this good problem, the first floor kitchen will be expanded into the former mayor’s office space, creating a new kitchen, store room and dining hall. The old dining hall will be configured into two larger bathrooms and a laundry room. Finally, an additional bathroom will be added upstairs in the former storage room along with a nurses station and an additional office. Finally, the heating system will be improved to include the expanded kindergarten space. It is anticipated that this work will be completed in four months.

The Ghoghanj Children’s Center located in the Kentron of Yerevan provides afterschool and summer school programs for approximately 60 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 2014 in the Nor Nork neighborhood of Yerevan to provide support to 85 additional children annually. The new center has provided students the same core classes daily (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.

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. We have identified Karen Bdoyan, his wife, two sons and mother as a family that would benefit from a new home. Karen was seriously injured in a work accident in Russia last year. Their current domik is located immediately under high voltage power lines. In addition, part of the floor has already collapsed, making it even less safe. Once the move is complete, the make shift housing unit will be destroyed to prevent its future occupancy.