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Executive Director's Corner

Bay Area Friends of Armenia just completed its eighth year in helping the people of the Republic of Armenia in the areas of health, education and welfare. In this issue of ARIT, BAFA's Board of Directors presents a comprehensive eight-year account of how your donations have supported welfare, medical and school projects. We thank you for continuing to be a true "Friend of Armenia."

In this issue of ARIT we also present the following articles and progress reports:

This past year, Miss Zabelle Gosyan, one of our precious donors, designated BAFA in her will. Garine Keledjian profiles Miss Gosyan's life and her love for Armenia. The BAFA Board accepts Miss Gosyan's will as a true testimonial of the important work you help us do in Armenia.

Recently, I asked Prof. Donald Miller, co-author of Survivors, along with his wife Lorna Touryan Miller, to reflect on his visits to BAFA projects in Armenia. Dr. Miller has kindly penned his compelling thoughts as to why we should continue helping Armenia. Additionally, BAFA Board member, Francois Antounian, once again, opens up his heart and calls us to action.

My wife Arpi, who has endured a multitude of long flights to Armenia, and spent many hours in cramped cars travelling on the pot-holed roads to visit various BAFA sponsored projects across Armenia, reflects on why she does not mind the difficult journey.

As Executive Director of BAFA, I thank each one of you for your past support to BAFA programs, and encourage and urge you to continue to help us assist our less privileged and very needy 'hairenagitz's.

John Haleblian

Eight-Year Report of Bay Area Friends of Armenia Activities Within the Republic of Armenia

You have been a faithful supporter of the Bay Area Friends of Armenia (BAFA). As in previous years we would like to give you a comprehensive report as to how your donations have been used in advancing the health, education and welfare within the Republic of Armenia.

I. Welfare Projects

The issue of welfare of the elderly has been the primary concern of BAFA since its inception. As Table I indicates, BAFA has raised and transmitted $434,000.00 for its Soup Kitchens program during the past eight years of operation. Presently, the program serves 970 elderly and orphans, one meal a day for five days a week, in four Soup Kitchens located in Norky Massif and Erebuni areas, Yerevan, Nor Hadjn, Ashtarak, and in two auxiliary locations of Yerevan Polytechnic and Charbach. The Fund for Armenian Relief manages the Soup Kitchens. Currently, twenty-two individuals cook and serve food at the various locations.

Sadly, the amount of Social Security checks received by the elderly buys only half a loaf of bread per day. So you can see how our Soup Kitchens go a long way in filling a critical need in the basic survival of the elderly.

II. Support to Schools

Armenia's educational system lingers in a state of crisis. Government support that has dwindled to a mere salary for teachers averages less than $15.00 per month, per teacher. No funds are allocated for the upkeep of schools, which are deteriorating due to lack of repair. Additionally, there are no funds for school supplies like books, paper and pencils.

Through your support we have been helping "Michnagarg" schools by contributing approximately $1,000.00 to each. This sum amounts to about 15% of the annual budget of many village schools. During the past several years we have visited 33 schools, and as Table II indicates transferred to their principals the sum of $57,740.00 dollars. We have requested that the funds be allocated to supplement teachers' salaries and to purchase school supplies. We are also working with the Armenian Social Investment Fund in the reconstruction of two Michnagarg Schools in Norashen and Goris.

III. Medical Projects

As indicated in last year's report, Dr. Hayk Avagian has been training at San Francisco General and University of California, San Francisco Hospitals since April 2000. He is very well liked and respected by his colleagues at the university hospital and is performing as a senior resident with excellent record.

Dr. Avagian is slated to return to Yerevan by March or April 2001. He already has plans to establish a "Learning Center" to train other physicians in Armenia and the region. We will help him establish the training center, as this will give visibility, respect and credibility to Armenia and its physicians. It will also yield direct benefits to the patients in Armenia. This project will help us upgrade the overall quality of our medical interventions.

Your unwavering support has made our evolutionary progress in the health care arena feasible. We look forward to enhancing the cooperation with our counterparts in Armenia, one colleague at a time. Dropping water can carve rocks, if done in a persistent manner. We aim to help sculpt improvements, permanently etching the profile of health care in Armenia. Your continued support is, therefore, invaluable.

As Table I indicates, since BAFA's inception, you have contributed a total of $617,000.00 of which $557,200.00 'dollar for dollar,' have been used to support health, education and welfare-related projects in Armenia.

Table I - Distribution of BAFA Funds for Health, Education & Welfare In Republic of Armenia 1993 - 2000 (x $1,000)

Table II - Bay Area Friends of Armenia Support to Schools In Armenia (M.S. = Michnagarg School)

Understandably, you have often asked: "How can you manage to transmit 'dollar for dollar' all of the donations to Armenia? Don't you have operational expenses in the U.S.?" The answer is a definitive yes! BAFA employs a part time secretary. Operational expenses (personnel and office-related) that are incurred in the U.S., are covered by BAFA Board members. Over the past eight years, they have donated $101,400.00. Additionally, the board members regularly cover their own travel expenses to Armenia to supervise the BAFA sponsored projects.

None of the BAFA's achievements would have been possible without your generosity. BAFA Board members sincerely appreciate you for serving as a dedicated 'Friend of Armenia' over the past eight years. Your support at this juncture in the life of the Republic of Armenia has profound effects. We thank you for your continued support.

BAFA Board of Directors
December 31, 2000

Last Will and Testament

Zabelle Gosyan recently named Bay Area Friends of Armenia as one of the beneficiaries in her will. We are pleased to acknowledge her with this brief commemoration.

Zabelle Gosyan was born in Everek, Turkey. She and her sister survived the massacres of 1915 and immigrated to the United States in 1920. After a short period in New York, Miss Gosyan moved to Fresno, California where she received her degree from Fresno State College.

During the course of her 32-year career at the California State Department of Employment, Miss Gosyan became a supervisor in employment services, and in her 10 years prior to retirement, she served as a supervisor of the Department's San Francisco Youth and Student Office.

Miss Gosyan lived her entire life working tirelessly for various charitable organizations and devoting herself in helping others. She was an active member of AGBU for 50 years and a member of Saint John Armenian Church in San Francisco. Among the many offices she held, included such positions as, member of the Church Building Committee, Secretary of the Parish Assembly, and a delegate to the Diocesan Assembly.

The BAFA Board of Directors gratefully accepts Zabelle Gosyan's generous donation.

Garine Keledjian

Zabelle Gosyan

Reflections on Visits to BAFA Projects in Armenia

Armenia is at a serious crossroads in her history as we begin a new year. The blockade by Turkey and Azerbaijan is still in effect. Half of Armenia's population is poor and a quarter of the people are barely subsisting. Two of the most vulnerable populations are the elderly and children. Pensions, when they are paid, scarcely cover the cost of food, and children are growing up in schools that do not equip them to compete in the economy of the 21st century.

The crisis in Armenia is measured by the fact that a million people, and perhaps more, have left the republic in the last decade. This is a quarter of the population, and includes many of Armenia's best-trained scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurial businessmen. Unfortunately, some of those who have emigrated have left behind families, now abandoned because these husbands and fathers have re-married in their new countries.

Many elements of the remaining population in Armenia carry a heavy emotional load: they lost loved ones in the earthquake and the war, they are refugees from Baku and Sumgait-having left everything behind when they fled the massacres-and they are survivors of winters in the first half of the last decade that reduced the modern urbanized cities of Yerevan, Gyumri, and Vanadsor to medieval conditions, without heat or electricity.

Unfortunately, there is growing compassion fatigue in the diaspora community today. Those of us living in the United States have grown up on happy endings. We resist the "survivor" image of Armenians. On the other hand, there are things to celebrate as we enter 2001. The Republic of Armenia will commemorate its tenth anniversary this year. In addition, it was 1700 years ago that Armenia became a Christian nation.

It is this Christian identity that calls us to sustain our commitment to Armenia. The Christian story is one of hope and resurrection; those who embrace this ancient religious tradition do not have the option of giving into despair. Instead, we are called to partner with the weak, the vulnerable.

Which is precisely why BAFA asks you to join them in supporting soup kitchens and schools in Armenia, as well as various development projects. These partnerships are important in giving hope at a time when resignation threatens the spirit of the Armenian people.

Donald E. Miller
Executive Director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture
University of Southern California

Reflections at the Dawn of the New Century

The act of helping our fellow humans is as instinctual as caring for our own children. As Armenians who have benefited from such generosity and nurturing, we are generally responsive to the need of others, especially when the "other" is one of us.

It is with a great sense of satisfaction that I write about our collective generosity. Over the past several years, many of us, BAFA friends and supporters, have been involved in making life a little less harsh for the elderly, the dispossessed and the children in Armenia. We can give thanks to the Lord for having made it possible for us to be generous and to share a little of what we have with others in great need.

As I reflect upon the situation in the Homeland today, and especially, in view of the threat of depopulation due to the adverse state of economic and unemployment conditions, it becomes increasingly clear that our work there has not yet come to an end. While we know that improvements are taking longer than expected, we must not forget that democracy is a homegrown process and not an imported commodity. Besides, the war and blockades are not over yet. Armenia's neighbors, themselves, are having a tough time developing as fledgling states despite their better geographic locations and vast natural resources. We cannot afford to neglect those whom we call our "own." Who else will care for our people?

Each one of us has a unique way of caring, participating, contributing and serving. If you have ever been the recipient of another's caring or good deed, then you understand the value of such a selfless gift, and all the warm feelings associated with it. These are times of survival for our nation, and are no less in significance than the ones our parents and grandparents faced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, circumstances summon us yet to another challenge of nation-rescuing proportions. This time, we are called to action by Armenia, our own land. We cannot turn our backs on our own people. We cannot forget how others helped us in the past. We must seize the opportunity to repay and be counted among human beings who care. We owe it to ourselves to help.

Let every day be a time for caring. Let us not forget to share our bread and our hearts. Let us be part of a "caring Diaspora." Please continue to be generous in your support of our homeland.

François Antounian
BAFA Board Member

What Draws Me to Hayasdan

I look forward to going to Armenia every year. So what draws me to Hayastan? There are many reasons for this desire.

Every time I visit the BAFA Soup Kitchens, I remember my parents who escaped the genocide but lost dear family members. When I look at the elderly ladies and gentlemen at the Soup Kitchens, I see my own parents. It's as if they are my 'adopted' parents. I enjoy visiting with them. It's satisfying to simply sit and chat and show that I'm interested in their wellbeing. When these elderly open up to me, they share their problems as well as their joys. Many, like my parents, have experienced the genocide. Unfortunately today, they find themselves in a sad situation with neither financial security nor social safety net.

While my parents' memory draws me to the Soup Kitchens, the potential of our future generation draws me to the schools. It is a challenge to instill in youth the motivation to achieve and to excel in their studies. The young represent our future leaders. I know that the investment we make in them today will help realize future dividends for Armenia.

I also enjoy going to our ancient churches all across Armenia. History comes to life when we visit them. Many of our churches though in sad and neglected condition, nevertheless, stand erect pointing to the heavens. These are edifices where our ancestors faithfully worshiped God. Often my husband, John, and I sing the 'Hayr Mer' and are always overwhelmed with the acoustics that make our voices come through bigger than life.

Last but not least, there is the hospitality of our compatriots in Armenia. They welcome us and prepare delicious meals despite their meager income. We're always amazed and humbled.

These are the many reasons why I am drawn to Hayasdan.

Arpi Haleblian

A Christmas Tradition With the Cingoz Family

For a second year, the Cingoz family opened their home and their hearts to the community for a fundraising event for the Bay Area Friends of Armenia during the season of giving.

As we approached the Cingoz home, Christmas was already in the air with decorations and merry lights that welcomed us. The aroma of delicious food enticed us in where we enjoyed topik, midya dolma, and many other delicacies followed by a delectable sweet table. The entire evening was truly a warm and joyous occasion full of smiling and happy faces, lively music, Christmas carols and Armenian songs.

On behalf of the BAFA Board of Directors, we thank the Cingoz family for their monumental effort and hospitality. God bless,

Garine Keledjian

WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!

The Board of Directors of Bay Area Friends of Armenia thanks all individuals and organizations for helping BAFA raise $80,200.00 in 2000. Contributions were used to support health, education and Soup Kitchen projects in the Republic of Armenia.