Fundraiser Launched to Renovate Schools in Artsakh, Syunik

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western US Central Committee’s Homeland Initiatives, ARF Shant Student Association, and the Armenian Youth Federation Western Region in conjunction with the ARF Eastern Region’s ACAA Artsakh Fund have launched their “Building Hope” project, an online fundraising campaign for schools in our homeland, Armenia.

This fundraiser will go towards renovating the kindergarten in Aghavno, providing the kids a sleeping area, kitchen, classroom, lunch room, indoor restrooms, and a large room that will also serve as gathering place for village events. The project will also benefit the children in Syunik today, by helping aid the renovation of the Akner school, a village near Goris, which is in severe need of revitalization. These are the initial points of focus, as the Homeland Initiatives Committee plans to expand their scope of aid and go village to village — building today, for a better tomorrow.

Over the past five years, ARF local chapters within the Western Region of the United States have coordinated projects in Armenia and Artsakh, ensuring the socio-economic development of our homeland, and consequently, its sustainable development in the future. Building a resilient infrastructural base is necessary for our homeland to thrive. The ARF’s past and ongoing initiatives include the Shirvanian Youth Center in Gyumri, solar water heating in Mardakert, a dental clinic in Hadrut, a fire truck in Stepanakert, a sanitation truck in Karvajar, green houses in Artsakh, the renovation of the Nanulik kindergarten, renovations in Azatamut, Torlakian-Fundukian Center in Kovsakan and Kashatagh, and most recently, aiding villages that had been effected by the impacts of the Covid crisis.

Following the heartbreak of the Artsakh war, it has become our responsibility — as a collective nation — to rise together, and help raise a generation of youth who must be provided with all the opportunity and educational resources needed for future success.