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. Staff from The Paros Foundation have visited and identified the Nalbandyan family as a good candidate to benefit from our Purchase a Home project. The family consists of Vachik and Kristine Nalbandyan, Kristine’s mother and their two daughters. Vachik works a few days a week in Gyumri doing construction to help provide for his family. Once the move is complete, the make shift housing unit will be destroyed to prevent its future occupancy.

The Armenia Support Fund (ASF) was established in early 2020 to take on strategic initiatives impacting Armenians in both Armenia and around the globe. In response to COVID-19, ASF has partnered with the Paros Foundation to launch the “Armenia COVID-19 Small Business Support Initiative” which aims to raise funds to support the business-related needs of family-owned businesses negatively impacted by COVID-19 in Armenia. After reporting record breaking GDP growth numbers in 2019, Armenia’s GDP is projected to be ~25% of what it would have been in 2020 before COVID-19.

This first phase will work to identify and support 20 family businesses with the goal of supporting up to 2,000 businesses as funds become available.  Small businesses that are properly register, family-owned, employ less than 20 people and had 2019 annual sales of under 200K USD (96.5M AMD) will be eligible to apply for grants of up to $2,500 to help them meet specific needs of their COVID-19 effected businesses. Paros Staff will work with potential applicants to gather required information for their application and submit to the ASF and Paros team for approvals. Once approved, The Paros team will oversee and administer the grants, ensuring full transparency and success in helping these businesses thrive through this crisis.

If you are a business in Armenia and wish to apply or learn more, click here: Application

Emma A. and her son live in the border village of  Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur.  On the morning of July 12, the Azeri’s launched a cross border attack on the Berd area of Armenia’s Tavush Region utilizing attack drones, tanks and other heavy artillery.  Although the Azeris ultimately lost control of strategic military posts to the Armenian defense forces, a considerable amount of damage was inflicted upon the villages of Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur, Aygepar, Movses and Chinari.

In response to this assault, The Paros Foundation immediately committed to improving these villagers’ homes well beyond the damage sustained during this recent shelling. Work has already started in rebuilding Emma’s home, thanks to the on-going generosity and sponsorship of Jean-Marie Atamian and his family, who have adopted this important border village and made major investments in its infrastructure since 2012. In the words of Mr. Atamian: ” No one should underestimate our resolve standing with our villages; for every house the enemy destroys, we will built 10 new homes.” Other residential projects in the neighboring border village of Aygepar, along with immediate reconstruction of its kindergarten, will be addressed with funds raised from the Emergency Reconstruction Fund.

A large caliber mortar landed a few feet from Emma’s home.  Its explosion left a crater in her yard, destroyed her garden including several fruit trees, and structurally damaged her home.  The reconstruction of her home will include rebuilding the support structure for her home and balcony, replacing the roof and windows, running a proper heating system throughout the home, building a new bathroom (replacing the family’s outhouse) and completing a full interior renovation.

Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur is an important border village with a population of approximately 1,100 residents in the Berd area of Armenia’s Tavush Region. This community remains under constant risk of sniper fire and renewed armed conflict. NKA was the single most damaged Armenian village during the Azeri conflict in the 1990’s. The economy of the village and the livelihood of many of its residents have suffered due to these difficult and dangerous conditions. In particular, 70% of their fertile land is unusable because of frequent sniper attacks. Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur is a beneficiary village of the Paros Foundation’s Prosperity on the Border Initiative. With major financial support of Jean-Marie Atamian and his family over the last eight years, much of the village’s infrastructure has been completely rebuilt and improved including, but not limited to, its large secondary school, expanded kindergarten, medical center, emergency services building and water distribution system. In addition, several families have benefited from agribusiness and animal husbandry projects. Having funded the rebuilding of NKA’s infrastructure, the Atamian family is now focusing its attention on the reconstruction of severely damaged houses to provide decent and safe homes for deserving families in the village. In the last year alone, three houses were rebuilt, and two additional homes are currently under construction now.

Following the 1988 Spitak Earthquake, 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. Although more than a quarter century has passed since the earthquake, this depressive reality still remains. Currently, more than 1,800 families still live in domiks scattered throughout Gyumri in extreme poverty. Many of them are unable to provide for their familys’ needs including warm clothes, nutritious food, heat and electricity for their homes and other basic necessities.

During his visit to Armenia three summers ago Dustin Hochmuth, one of the SERVICE Armenia 2017 participants, and several of his peers, witnessed these horrible conditions and decided to assemble packets for 10 families in dire need of everyday necessities and non-perishable food items. This effort was led by one of the SERVICE Armenia 2017 coordinators, Stephanie Nersesyan. Following the success of that effort, Dustin decided to return to Armenia the following two years on the SERVICE Armenia 2018 and 2019 trips and spearheaded his own project providing similar packets of necessities to a total of 150 families in desperate need. Dustin helped raise the funds needed and with his SERVICE Armenia peers spent several days purchasing, assembling and distributing the packets of food to families in Gyumri.

One of our SERVICE Armenia 2019 participants, Hrag Kassabian, was also very inspired by this effort during the its implementation that summer. He decided to lead an effort to raise the funds needed to help 100 families again during the SERVICE Armenia trip in 2020. Each packet will cost $40 and will include basic staples including personal hygiene products, non-perishable food items such as rice, flour, sugar, salt, oil, and pasta. The packets will also include fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy products and canned meats.  Donations in any amount will help this important cause.

Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur (NKA) is an important border village with a population of approximately 1,100 residents in the Bert area of Armenia’s Tavush Region. This community remains under constant risk of sniper fire and renewed armed conflict. NKA was the single most damaged Armenian village during the Azeri conflict in the 1990’s. The economy of the village and the livelihood of many of its residents have suffered due to these difficult and dangerous conditions. In particular, 70% of their fertile land is unusable because of frequent sniper attacks. Many homes have been heavily damaged over the years and are in need of substantial renovations and repairs, including, indoor plumbing, new windows, doors and floors, roof repairs, new heating systems, and even room additions. NKA is a beneficiary village of the Paros Foundation’s Prosperity on the Border Initiative. With major financial support of Jean-Marie Atamian and his family over the last seven years, much of the village’s infrastructure has been completely rebuilt and improved including, but not limited to, its large secondary school, expanded kindergarten, medical center, emergency services building and water distribution system. In addition, several families have benefited from agribusiness and animal husbandry projects. Having funded the rebuilding of NKA’s infrastructure, the Atamian family is now focusing its attention on the reconstruction of severely damaged houses to provide decent and safe homes for deserving families in the village. In the last year alone, three houses were rebuilt. The fourth major house reconstruction project will benefit the family of Suren G. Suren works as a police officer. His family (wife and three daughters) live in their family’s ancestral home. The home is in very poor condition and will be completely remodeled and rebuilt. The scope of work will include a new roof and underlying structure, a new foundation and exterior wall under part of the home, and a complete interior remodel. Work will take five months to complete and cost $25,000.

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 170 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.

Նորք (Nork) is a neighborhood in the Armenian capital Yerevan. It is located in the Nork-Marash District. The school currently has 1,010 students enrolled from grades 1-12. The school has 2 buildings in its original condition since being built in 1981.

The Knights of Vartan since 1993 has supported the #106 school in Yerevan which since 1995 officially was known as the Knights of Vartan #106 Public School. It is one of the many schools the Knights of Vartan has supported via its partnership with the World Bank Armenian Social Investment Fund and the ATDF.

Through years some support such as renovating the roofing, installing new heating system, supporting teachers and Christmas gifts for pupils were implemented.  In 2019, a complete renovation of the gym, locker rooms and adjacent bathrooms took place.

The school’s hallways are in need of new electrical and windows, and the school’s auditorium needs a complete renovation.

The Berd Consolidated Community is located in an isolated part of Armenia’s North-East Tavush region.  More than half of the villages in this community have a mutual border with Azerbaijan, thus adding to the difficulties in these towns and villages.

In an effort to try and control the spread of the Covid-19 Virus, the government of Armenia made the difficult decision to issue a strong stay-at-home order for the entire country.  This directive creates a very difficult situation for the elderly and other higher risk people.  The head of Berd Consolidated Community, Harutyun Manucharyan, launched an effort to provide food staples to the elderly and others at high-risk.  He turned to The Paros Foundation for help to reach 800 of the most vulnerable in his community.

Food packs will cost $10 each and are designed to provide basic staples including flour, sugar, buckwheat, coffee, oil, tea and other essentials that should last these people about 10 days.  We anticipate food packages like these to be delivered twice in the coming weeks for these people.  Staff from The Paros Foundation will connect directly with food suppliers in Armenia and order the food staples and have them delivered to the city of Berd, where the municipality staff will assemble and distribute the packs to the recipients.

 

My Forest Armenia has partnered with The Paros Foundation for this environmental  project. Their main objective it to plant 400.000 trees per year, or about 160 hectares of new forest every year with a mission to help decrease carbon in the atmosphere, sustainably increase forest coverage and preserve biodiversity using numerous endemic species. My Forest Armenia is growing seedlings ready for planting in its nurseries. This project is a reforestation plan of 20 hectares (50 acres) in a degraded area within the Dilijan National Park in the Tavush region. The forest has become degraded in the last 25 years because of illegal logging but mainly because of cow grazing in the pastures nearby. Villagers let their animals enter protected areas of the park and the undergrowth cannot regenerate. The most important part of the project therefore is to put a fence to protect the national park area. We will plant various endemic tree species so as to maintain the rich biodiversity of the park, mainly oak, beech, pine, birch, etc. Density will be 2,000 trees per hectare (800 trees per acre).

Reducing CO2 in the atmosphere is crucial to reduce global warming, planting trees is the best way to achieve this. At 11.2%, Armenia needs desperately to increase its forest coverage (as a comparison, forest coverage in the US is 34%). One cannot stress enough how forests are vitally important for any country, as it lowers temperatures, increase humidity, stops desertification, preserves bio-diversity and so much more. Further, many regions of Armenia are still quite poor. Reforestation in remote regions of Armenia will provide local villagers with a steady income and alleviate poverty.

By planting 30,000 trees and restore 20 hectares of forest, this project will achieve three objectives: reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, restore a beautiful forest area in the Dilijan National Park and, because we are hiring local workers from rural areas to work on the project, we will increase employment and improve the economic conditions in some of the poorest regions of Armenia.

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.