YEREVAN—Volunteers with the Armenian Volunteer Corps (AVC) have fallen into community service this fall—but not only at their placement sites. During late October and early November AVC volunteers painted, dug holes, helped build a house, and planted trees, all in their spare time.
On Sunday, Oct. 24, AVC volunteers and Birthright Armenia participants and staff participated in the Third Annual Pan-Armenian Painting Day, a day-long, outdoor festival sponsored by the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC), an AVC volunteer placement site. Volunteers helped facilitate the open-air painting studio, which attracted more than 1,000 young Armenian children and their families. Also participating in the Painting Day were volunteers from FPWC’s Eco-clubs and other community members.
AVC volunteer Serda Ozbenian, who is on sabbatical from the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, DC, while volunteering at FPWC, said, “Helping out at the Painting Day was an amazing way to help young people learn about conservation and protecting our environment.” The paintings created by the children can be viewed at http://paintingday.sunchild.org/
On Wednesday of that same week, AVC volunteers spent a few short hours helping to make Yerevan greener by digging holes near the Pyunic Association for the Disabled so that hundreds of trees could be planted later in the week. Volunteers were also treated to a special tour of Pyunic, a non-profit organization that serves the myriad needs of disabled children and their families. Pyunic is also an AVC volunteer placement site.
On Friday, Oct. 29, volunteers traveled to the village of Mrgashat in the Armavir region and spent the day helping the Rafaelyan Family and the Fuller Center for Housing build a house. Volunteers carried buckets of cement helping to lay three floors for the first ever Fuller house built in Mrgashat. The mayor of Mrgashat and many local residents also participated in the daylong building. But there is more.
On Nov. 8, volunteers spent the afternoon planting trees at the Toumanyan Park in Yerevan. AVC volunteers planted a total of 158 trees as part a project of the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies to plant hundreds of trees in the park this fall. AVC volunteer Jirair Garabedian, an animator from Vancouver, Canada, has been volunteering at the TUMO Center for the last six weeks. “It was great to participate in making a lasting difference by planting trees that will help bring clean air and green space to generations of Yerevan residents,” said Garabedian.
Earlier this year, volunteers sprung into spring with community service by planting trees in Yeghegnadzor, assisting with an Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR) drive, and helping to recycle flowers from the Tzitzernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial.
So far this year, 68 AVC volunteers have served Armenia at, among other places, FPWC, Tumo Center, International Child Development Center, Warm Hearth, Deem Communications, ReAnimania, Counterpart Armenia, Homeland Handicrafts, Pyunic Gyumri, Endanik Youth Creative Center, Gyumri IT Center, Mascedan Foreign Languages Educational Centre, Manana Youth Center, and the list goes on.
AVC was founded in 2000 to serve Armenia through volunteerism. Since its inception, over 300 volunteers have served in 200 organizations throughout Armenia. For more information about AVC visit www.armenianvolunteer.org.
Congratulations to AVC and Birthright Armenia, and to the Hovnanian family who generously donates to support our youth who wish to offer their services in Armenia.
This is a win/win deal for the youth, their families, the Armenian state and people and for the diaspora.
I cannot think of a better investment in Armenia (donation) that one can make than supporting these volunteers. Their slogan says: “COME MOVE MOUNTAINS”. One day we will have moved all the right mountains, one pebble at a time!
Abreen mer Kamavorneru ev irants hovanavorneru!
Antoine S. Terjanian: Ottawa and Yeghegnadzor
Thank you, Antoine. Moving those mountains sometimes comes in the way of teaching, or researching, or translating, or working with environmental organizations or at a youth center, or with rural women artisans, or exploring renewable energy possibilities, or …the possibilities are endless.