Chapar, a village in Artsakh’s Martakert region, has a brand new school, which will open its doors in time for the new academic year. The construction of the campus was sponsored by Varuzhan Grigoryan, an Armenia-based industrialist and a native of Chapar. The project was co-sponsored by the government of Artsakh.

On September 1, Chapar’s 54 schoolchildren, five of whom are first-graders, will start attending the two-story school, which can accommodate up to 84 students. The state-of-the-art facility features bright classrooms; labs for chemistry and biology; a classroom for military studies; a computer room; a library; and a large, grass-covered outdoor playground and sports field. The 940-square-meter campus is also equipped with a boiler room for providing central heating.

The new school is the latest in a string of vitally important infrastructure projects in Chapar that were initiated and made possible by Grigoryan in the past few years. The projects he has sponsored include a drinking-water network, a kindergarten, a community club, an events hall, and a first-responders emergency center.

The beautiful architecture of the buildings form a wonderful complement to Chapar’s picturesque landscape, including its well-maintained green spaces, with the panorama evoking the charm of a European town. Chapar is the site of yet another Hayastan All-Armenian Fund project, the construction of a road that will connect the village to the Martakert-Vardenis Highway. A few days ago, crews finished paving an almost one-kilometer section of the five-kilometer road. 15 families have already returned back home to enjoy better life conditions in their homeland. We congratulate the Chapar schoolchildren on the new academic year.

Irina Sevumyan, principal of the Chapar school, said that the school’s bell, which has been in use for close to a century, will be installed in the new campus. It will toll for festivities as well as on school days when there are power outages, she said.

The main occupations of Chapar, which has a population of 320 with 174 households, are animal husbandry, beekeeping, and agriculture. Employment is also provided by the community’s various institutions, while many residents work at the construction sites of new projects such as the road that will connect Chapar to the Martakert-Vardenis Highway.