Featured Stories

by Sevak Hakobyan Before coming to Artsakh, Tola Omilana had never heard of Armenia and the Armenians. Today, he has made a little dictionary for himself: he is learning Armenian. And he has been given an Armenian name, Tsolak, by his new friends in Artsakh. An...

301 AD supports Armenia Fund’s COVID-19 relief efforts In early 2020, Alex Boghossian, Arno Avasapian, and Emin Gharibi, all recent college graduates and residents of Glendale, California, were ready to start their own apparel brand, 301 AD. The company’s name was a...

Nicole Andonian is a young medical professional who has started her own grassroots initiative this year, to help make a difference in the fight against COVID-19 through Armenia Fund and the CDC Foundation. A California native, Andonian grew up in Los Angeles and San...

by Sevak Hakobyan We’re in the village of Krasni, in Artsakh, visiting Mrs. Tsovinar. Her curved back, a result of years of hard work, doesn’t prevent her from being a most gracious host. She hastens to make coffee and serve us fresh walnuts picked from her own tree....

As a schoolboy in Artsakh, Armen Khachaturyan dreamed of becoming an attorney. But an injury to his pinky when he was in eighth grade made him aspire for an altogether different calling. After the doctors succeeded in saving his finger, he decided to become a...

by Sevak Hakobyan “People are getting by, but work opportunities are scarce; and if our young people don’t work abroad, it would be hard to provide for a family,” says Grandma Arpik as she describes life in her native village, Koghb, in Armenia’s Tavush Region. Yet...

by Sevak Hakobyan Aygina Yuzbashyan is a native of Kaghartsi, a small village in Artsakh’s Martuni Region. Located about 20 miles from Stepanakert, Kaghartsi has a population of 300. “Although our village is not close to the border, we’ve all felt the effects of war...

by Sevak Hakobyan “I had heard great things about Armenia Fund’s medical missions to Armenia, and always wanted to get involved in the program,” says Araz Melkonian, a family doctor. “I finally had the chance to do it this year, and, as part of the medical team from...

by Sevak Hakobyan When asked to reveal her secret to longevity, Grandma Zemfira lists a number of exotic-sounding herbs and vegetables. At 78, she still works every day, going to the fields and working the land. “The young ones joke that I’m healthier than them,” she...

by Sevak Hakobyan Armen’s fishhook is gathering dust in a drawer at his home. He’s been in a wheelchair for the past three months. He can’t even attend classes — let alone go fishing. The Kambulyans, who live in Ptghavan, a village in Armenia’s Tavush Region, know...

by Sevak Hakobyan “Every day, for ten years, I’ve walked ten kilometers to come from Jujevan to Noyemberyan,” recalls Nshanik Hovhannisyan, who has worked at the Noyemberyan Hospital from 1985 to 1995. Today, Hovhannisyan has come to Noyemberyan in a car, and somehow...

In Berdavan, a village in Armenia’s Tavush Region located less than a mile from the border with Azerbaijan, most adult residents are former or current soldiers, irrespective of their regular professions. They include Gagik Ghazaryan, the district manager in charge of...

by Sevak Hakobyan Dr. Robin Kim, of Glendale, California, has participated in medical missions to several countries including Haiti, Peru, Mexico, and, in recent years, Armenia. An anesthesiologist at Adventist Health Glendale (AHG) for the past 17 years, Dr. Kim was...

Old address: Gorky Street, metal container No. 161/047 New address: Mush 2 District, 11th Street, Building No. 1, Apartment 25 Lyova Galstyan and his wife, Voskehat, are among thousands of Gyumri families whose lives were turned upside down by the 1988 earthquake. The...

Old address: Vazgen Sargsyan Street, metal container No. 224/109 New address: Mush 2 District, Building No. 4/29, Apartment 21 This is the incredible story of the Hovsepyans, a family that struggled for sheer survival on the margins of Gyumri, forgotten long ago, all...

Old address: metal container No. 231/450 New address: Mush 2 District, Halabyan Street, Building No. 4, Apartment 30 For as long as he remembers, Arsen Khachatryan, a young resident of Gyumri, has lived in huts — known as domiks. Born a few years after the 1988 Spitak...

Old address: Domik No. 214/058, near the new Police Station New address: Mush 2, 7th Street, Building 2/1, Apartment 6 It seems incredible that Natalya Struk was able to raise her family in a ramshackle hut, known as a domik, which lacked even the most basic of human...

Old address: Hut No. 217/054, Repini Street, across from the Music School New address: Mush 2, Building 65, Apartment 16 The Sukiasyans were among Gyumri’s forgotten: struggling on the margins, surrounded by dreadful living conditions, barely scraping by. Such...

On September 19, 2009, Gohar Khachaturyan gave birth to her second child, through Cesarean section. Today, eight years later, she’s about to undergo another surgery, this time for removing gallbladder stones. Earlier in the morning, as Gohar was stepping out of the...

Old address: Makeshift metal container No. 46/009 New address: Mush 2 district, Building 9/1, Apartment 13 The Elbakyans are among hundreds of low-income families in Gyumri who not only lost their home to the 1988 earthquake, but have endured the indignity of having...

Artsakh is not just one of the most beautiful countries in the world; given its wonderful climate and fertile soil, it also has the potential of becoming an agricultural powerhouse. So why hasn’t it yet? The answer is, simply, water — not the lack of it, and certainly...

Old address: Manushyan Street, makeshift metal container No. 230/360 New address: Mush 2 district, Street 7, Building 4, Apartment 4 The Senekhchyan family once had a normal, comfortable life in Gyumri. It all changed suddenly in December 1988, when their apartment...

Nestled among gentle green slopes and bordered by a tributary of the Karkar River, Krasni is a quintessential Artsakh village: timeless in its breathtaking beauty; timeless in the hospitality of its hardy residents and their deep-rooted traditions. Yet the word...

by Sevak Hakobyan “You can say we’re now in little Talish,” Vilen Petrosyan says with a smile as he shows a cluster of temporary residences in Alashan. Petrosyan has been the mayor of Talish for the past 25 years. Today, the communal kitchen, public bath, and...

by Sevak Hakobyan Three-year-old Jenya Khojyan has already decided to become a doctor when she grows up. The little girl’s inspiration comes from her mother, Tehmine, who for the past seven years has been working as a nurse at the Noyemberyan Hospital’s Gynecology...

by Sevak Hakobyan “I never got used to transporting wounded or killed soldiers from the border,” confesses Grisha Khachikyan after having worked eight years as an ambulance driver for the Noyemberyan Hospital. “People kept telling me that in time I would become...

by Sevak Hakobyan In his native village of Jujevan, 70-year-old Armenak Chilingaryan is known as Siraj. His wife, Anahit, says jokingly, “I found out his real name only recently, after so many years of marriage. He has been called Siraj ever since he was a little...

by Sevak Hakobyan “We’re all part of the big human family,” says Dr. Chandrika Seneviratne, a native of Sri Lanka who has lived in the United States for many years. “We may speak different languages, and we may have different cultures and cuisines, but we’re all human...

by Sevak Hakobyan For a whole year, Gayane Mkhitaryan has wondered how she could express her gratitude to her doctors from Adventist Health Glendale. “Had I written them a note in Armenian, they might’ve not been able to read it; and my English is not strong enough to...

by Sevak Hakobyan Svetlana Amiraghyan, a grandmother of 11, feels sad for the fact that her poor eyesight prevents her from helping her school-age grandchildren with their homework. One of her grandkids, Vahe, is now serving in the army, right on the border. And...

by Sevak Hakobyan “I was overjoyed when I learned that I was about to bring twin boys into this world,” recalls Anahit Bulghadaryan-Zalinyan. “When my first son, Vahagn, was born, the doctors congratulated me. Fifteen minutes later, my second boy, Vahe, was born. But...

by Sevak Hakobyan In 2005, obstetrician and gynecologist Varduhi Asirian was invited to attend a wedding in the United States. The invitation would prove to be life-changing for the young doctor. She went on to move to America with her family. Varduhi finds it painful...

by Sevak Hakobyan “In the 1990s, we fought the Azeris with spades, pitchforks, and hunting rifles,” says former military service member Grisha Harutyunyan, of Barekamavan, a border village in the Tavush Region, as he remembers the Artsakh War years. “We formed a...

by Sevak Hakobyan When asked, “How old are you?” little Artyom raises two fingers and barely manages to lisp the word “two.” At the time Artyom, the Manukyans’ second child, was born, doctors told them the baby had a birth defect known as posterior tongue tie. The...

Helping Local Farmers like Martin Go Back to Work by Sevak Hakobyan     On September 24, 2015, the Azerbaijani forces opened fire on border communities in the Tavush Region. The attack claimed the lives of three innocent people in the villages of Paravakar...

Noyemberyan Hospital: A Lifetime of Service by Sevak Hakobyan Sixty-three-year old Marieta Amiraghyan has dedicated 36 years of her life to the Noyemberyan Hospital. It was in 1980, she recalls, that after graduating from Yerevan’s State Medical University, she...

Providing Compassionate Medical Care to Borderline Communities by Sevak Hakobyan “My daughter’s birth was nothing less than a miracle, so we decided to name her after the Blessed Virgin,” says three-year-old Mariam’s mother, Jenya Arakelyan. Two months into her...

Hovhannes Tumanyan’s “The Invincible Rooster” is eight-year-old Artur’s favorite fairy tale. He can recite it from start to finish, but has difficulty speaking. Artur Gyureghyan was born with two birth defects: facial and oral malformations known as cleft palate and cleft lip.

Across the hallways of Noyemberyan Hospital, 84-year-old Roza Bayramyan is frantically asking staff members, “Have you seen my daughter?” She’s been looking for Zarouhie Koftekian, a registered nurse from Glendale Adventist Medical Center (GAMC). Mrs. Roza says jokingly that only at 84 was she able to find her daughter.

In an ancient part of historic Armenia, the children of Sos village will have a new kindergarten built by Armenia Fund to replace the current dilapidated one that is in use. The area around Sos, in Artsakh, probably doesn’t look much different than it did 1,600 years...

One of Yerevan’s most pleasant attractions is Lovers’ Park, a longtime green space that was recently renovated. The new park was a collaboration between a Swiss-Armenian philanthropist and Armenia Fund. Someone decided early on that as people moved from rural areas to...

In Karin Tak, a village known for its heroism during the Artsakh War for Independence, Armenia Fund has brought clean water, renovated part of a school, and continues to implement new projects to improve living conditions. The old maxim, “never underestimate your...

In a town reborn, Armenia Fund built a community center where villagers participate in civic life, hold meetings and events, and receive basic healthcare. It’s a familiar story to Armenians: villagers suddenly descended upon by armed bandits and soldiers filled with...

A part of the Tavush region rests in a precarious geographic position, far from large cities, hard to access by road, and surrounded by an enemy that regularly takes aim at civilians. Armenia Fund fully renovated the hospital in Noyemberyan, accessible by all in this...

In Stepanakert, Armenia Fund has helped to fully reconstruct a nursing home which was on its last legs. The elderly and disabled who live there will now have access to facilities and amenities they do not have access to anywhere else. They are called the “golden...

In Chapar, a northern village in Artsakh, Armenia Fund has constructed a new school with modern amenities to serve the local population. During the time Armenia Fund has realized many projects in and around the area, 15 families have moved back and resettled in the...

In a town whose students overwhelmingly go on to pursue a higher education, Armenia Fund built a new state-of-the-art school to replace its dilapidated predecessor. Her head is held high and her speech is formal. If you hadn’t arrived on a sparsely driven road winding...

Over twenty years after the devastating Spitak Earthquake, many families remain in shantytowns all over Gyumri. Armenia Fund will be hosting a special telethon in collaboration with ARTN/Shant TV on Sunday, September 7, from 5 to 10PM PST, to help 20 families who are...

Stepanakert was decimated by the time heroic Armenians liberated Shushi and stopped the inhumane bombardment by GRAD missiles of the city. Since then, through an Armenia Fund healthcare initiative that has built a state-of-the-art hospital and polyclinic, the city has...

Maybe it’s pride. Maybe it’s tradition. Whatever it is, something special keeps them going, these villagers. In Tavush’s Gandzakar village, under nonstop sniper fire from across the border, the villagers tend their crops, the children attend school - life goes on. In...

Armenia Fund continues its new series on welcoming developments in Armenia, including Artsakh. For over two decades, the Fund has been doing humanitarian work throughout Armenia and this series is a showcase of encouraging initiatives, some that are a direct result of...

Cows have traditionally been a source of income for Armenian farmers but after independence, the agricultural industry was badly damaged. In Lusadzor, in the country’s northeast, Armenia Fund has initiated a cattle breeding project to bring back sustainable dairy...

“I would need much more than one wish to make this village alive again.” This was how the mayor of Ditavan, Seyran Sargsyan, responded years ago when asked which issue he would want solved if he was granted one magic wish. The 19th century village sits about 1.2 miles...

Before Armenia Fund built a modern cardiology center in Goris, some people would have to drive hundreds of miles to get help in Yerevan. With the project now complete, residents of southern Armenia and Artsakh have world-class cardiac care close to home. It’s only a...

In a somber corner of Yerevan’s Shengavit district, Armenia Fund rebuilds a boarding school for children who have nowhere else to go. When you think Armenia Fund, you think bringing water to villages in Artsakh or building greenhouses for farmers in Tavush or...

In Togh, the first village that saw fighting during the Artsakh War, Armenia Fund created an art school for children of the village and ten others that are nearby. It’s hard to know if art was on anyone’s mind. The segregated school with the Azerbaijanis on one side...

Armenia Fund is pleased to continue its new series on welcome developments in Armenia, including Artsakh. For over two decades, the Fund has been doing humanitarian work throughout Armenia and this series is an opportunity to showcase welcome developments in the...

Karvachar, a town that had no running water is where Armenia Fund built a brand new distribution network that now provides the town with safe drinking water 24 hours a day. It’s early Saturday morning. You walk over to the sink and start brushing your teeth. The cool...

Babylon, Sumer, Egypt, and Urartu, city-states that became great empires. Fed by the waters of the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile, Araxes, and Kura, Lake Van and Sevan, these settlements were transformed into powerful states that initiated the era of modern...

Armenia Fund is pleased to bring you a new series on welcome developments in Armenia, including Artsakh. For over two decades, the Fund has been doing humanitarian work throughout Armenia and this series is an opportunity to showcase welcome developments in the...

Every child deserves a chance. You won’t find this mantra inscribed anywhere at the Gyumri Orphanage for Physically and Mentally Disabled Children - but it’s the principle that drives the people who work there. Mentally challenged or physically disabled, the children...

The birth of a child is the happiest moment in the life of a parent. When the newborn arrives, the cares of the world disappear, lost, as the parents are enchanted with their creation. Those cares, although temporarily gone, will sometimes affect the newborn child:...

A building might amaze an observer, but a book can inspire the world. When nothing but a column remains from that building, the ideas from a book continue to teach and shape the future. If they’re preserved, that is. From the monasteries of the Mekhitarists to the...

Shushi sits atop Artsakh like a crown. Its peaceful beauty today makes it hard to believe that this Armenian town was where nonstop Azerbaijani attacks were being launched against the civilian population of Stepanakert. It wasn’t the first time Shushi was the center...

Seeing the work that Armenia Fund has done in the past twenty-two years – building important infrastructure like highways, hospitals, schools, and waterways - one might think there are hundreds of people working for the pan-Armenian organization headquartered in...

If you’ve visited the Tavush region in Armenia, you wouldn’t think that you need help to grow anything there. The region is among the country’s lushest areas, spectacularly beautiful and spectacularly green; its hillside forests are neatly arranged like the densest...

Roads. They connected the edges of the Roman Empire, allowing armies and trade to travel freely, with relative ease, as needed. Two millennia later in the United States, they connect the country’s vast territory so that someone can get on the Interstate 5 (or, “the 5”...