Armenian Relief Society (ARS) representatives Suzy Sarafian, Lucy Pampalian, and Carolin Keverian joined over 2,000 global civil society activists at the 63rd annual UN Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations Conference titled, “Advance Global Health: Achieve the MDGs.”
The three-day conference took place in Melbourne, Australia at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre from Mon., Aug. 30 to Wed., Sept. 1.
The 63rd UN DPI/NGO Conference is being organized in partnership with the United Nations Department of Public Information, the NGO/DPI Executive Committee, and the government of Australia.
The conference aims to promote ways in which civil society, in partnership with those in business, academia, philanthropy, media, and medicine, can work together to create the conditions that contribute to improve global health.
The ARS supports global health initiatives by working towards the alleviation of poverty, upholding human rights, and promoting basic education, healthcare, women’s rights, and child welfare. “Our goal is to make people aware of how global health is not simply the management of disease. Global health requires conditions which promote health, such as sustainable peace, poverty reduction, education, gender equality, basic human rights, and freedom from fear,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization.
Founded in 1910, the Armenian Relief Society is a humanitarian organization with over 15,000 members operating in 29 countries, including Australia with over 300 members. The ARS, Inc. is on the roster with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
“2010 marks the Centenary of the ARS which we are celebrating under the credo of “One Hundred Years of Devoted Service,” said Suzy Sarafian, the ARS Australia chairperson. “During our second centenary we will continue to live by our creed ‘With the people, for the people,’” she concluded.
For more information about the ARS, Inc., visit www.ars1910.org.
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