FAR Contributes to Better Healthcare in Armenia

Proper healthcare is the key to a self-sustainable and successful Armenia. As a nation at a very crucial point in its development, bolstering Armenia will strengthen the health of our citizens and our motherland as a collective whole. Whereas Armenia’s physicians are dedicated and resourceful, many are practicing in rural regions and do not have access to the latest methods and technologies in a field that advances at a rapid pace. Due to high cost and the inaccessibility of certification programs, doctors are often unable to refresh their medical skills. Plus, many have only antiquated equipment to work with. Because they lack any kind of connection to other physicians at more advanced medical centers in Yerevan, these provincial doctors often work in isolation.

Dr. and Mrs. Gary and Mariann Zamanigian

Building on FAR’s successful medical education programs of the 1990’s, the FAR Continuing Medical Education Program (CME) has for the past seven years given Armenia’s doctors the opportunity to change the face of healthcare. This program makes it possible for physicians from Armenia’s rural regions to spend one month in Yerevan and work with leading experts at top medical centers. There they are given access to the best resources available in the country and are exposed to new skills and methodologies. They are connected with the latest medical journals and research, and are given the opportunity to attend seminars and lectures, such as the recent FAR-supported workshops on pediatric intensive care and neuroanesthesiology, and a congress on stroke treatment. The lectures were organized and led by an impressive group of doctors from leading medical schools and hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.

These opportunities allow doctors in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh to become better professionals and make lasting changes within their own communities by not only providing better care to their hometown populations, but by passing along this new knowledge to the physicians they work with.

CME was created in 2005 by FAR and the FAR Fellowship Alumni Association. In 2011, it was expanded to reach doctors in Karabagh through the great support of the Armenian American Health Professionals Organization (AAHPO). CME is now one of FAR’s most extensive and effective programs and has touched thousands of Armenian lives. More than 450 doctors from Armenian provinces and Karabagh have completed the program. CME helps to create ripples of change throughout Armenia and Karabagh, which add up to large-scale, concrete transformations.

This powerful program is generously supported by the FAR Board of Directors and friends. In 2013, Dr. Gary Zamanigian from Chicago, Ill., made a significant contribution to the program, allowing FAR to help even more people to improve their quality of life.
By providing opportunity and education to physicians, the broader effect is immense: healthy and empowered Armenians and a stronger Armenia.

Fund for Armenian Relief, an organization founded following a devastating earthquake in 1988, has served hundreds of thousands of people through more than 225 relief and development programs in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabagh. It has channeled more than $290 million in humanitarian and development assistance by implementing a wide range of projects including emergency relief, construction, education, medical aid, and economic development.