GLENDALE, Calif.—At its 65th Anniversary Gala, the Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF) announced plans to donate $25,000 to the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund’s (SARF) telethon on Feb. 21, specifically to support struggling Armenian schools in Aleppo, and $40,000 in scholarships to Syrian refugee students in Armenia and Artsakh.
Before the Syrian Civil War in 2011 there were 30 Armenian schools in Syria, with approximately 20,000 students. Since the onset of the war, most of the Armenian schools have been destroyed and thousands of Armenian students have been displaced from their homes.
Historically, Aleppo was a hub for Syrian Armenians and boasted the largest Armenian community in Syria, with 18 of the 30 Armenian schools located there. Now, there are only 14 functioning Armenian schools in Syria, of which only 9 are left in Aleppo. Schools were forced to consolidate and switch to a different teaching system—scheduling classes in multiple shifts to accommodate students from destroyed schools.
AEF understands the necessity of helping Armenian students in Syria, and aims, with the $25,000 donation, to improve the fractured education system of the country and to reintroduce normalcy to the lives of the students.
Moreover, there are currently approximately 5,000 Syrian-Armenian refugee students living in Armenia and Artsakh. AEF plans to allocate $40,000 ($10,000 per year for 4 years) from its Scholarship Program to fund 10 Syrian-Armenian refugee students who attend a 4-year public university in Armenia or Artsakh.
For more information or to make a donation, contact the AEF office by calling (818) 242-4154 or e-mailing aef@aefweb.org.
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