Five Months After the War, Five Alumni Grants Well Underway

Given the urgency of the post-war support effort,The H. Hovnanian Family Foundation made available grants totaling $108,000 to our alumni who proposed emergency response initiatives and projects with their local NGOs and partners. Their turnaround time was quick as their hands-on work with the vulnerable families allowed them to assess immediate needs on the ground. These grants also help Birthright Armenia encourage their alumni to take on initiatives of their own and provide opportunities for alumni to test and develop their leadership skills. Meet them and learn about what they’ve been able to accomplish in the past few months.

Alumni Initiatives

All For Armenia was established by a group of alumni living in Armenia and abroad, including Araz and Matthieu Sahakian (2016), Tara Baghdassarian (2017), Lori Injejikian (2016), Dea Hovhannisyan (2016)and Sandra de Castro (2017). To this day, the team has carried out at least 22 missions providing humanitarian aid and supporting the return of displaced families.

Founded by Karine Eurdekian (2017),Looys Program by Kooyrigs is a unique initiative to support pregnant women displaced from Artsakh. About 200 expectant and post-partum mothers have been provided with the personalized care packages.

Through theCaritas Aregak Foundation, alum Sarah Stites (2018) has helped support 52 families by delivering customized psycho-social services. At first, they focused on the families of war victims. Currently, the project has shifted to families of soldiers and prisoners of war.

Within the Shirak province,Sose NGO is based near the city of Goris, where alum Shant Meguerditchian (2013) and the Sose team provided 710 individuals with housing, water, gas, electricity, and food for the last three months. The families also receive personal and employment counseling services, as well as English and art classes. Since January, 50 additional families have been added to the list.

Hovnanian Foundation stays committed to continuously supporting targeted projects of our alumni. Another project was awarded a grant to expand their scope of service. One such project is Gradarak, co-founded by Arusik Zeynalyan (2015), to offer long-term job opportunities to displaced women from Artsakh and providing the Diaspora and the international community with high-quality fashionable "made in Armenia" products.

Let's continue to support young leaders who are fully involved in the wellbeing of Armenia. Stay tuned for more updates on our alumni projects and don't lose your chance of becoming a part of our volunteer community.