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AGBU Press Office
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.agbu.org
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
AGBU FLAGSHIP PROGRAM DISCOVER ARMENIA CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY MARKS A DECADE OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Since 2003, the AGBU Discover Armenia program has brought diasporan
teens together in their ancestral homeland, where they've created
countless memories-and volunteered hundreds of hours to strengthen
local communities. Now, after a decade of growth, the flagship summer
initiative is celebrating the lives they've touched.
The three-week Discover Armenia trip, which takes participants from
Yerevan to Nagorno-Karabakh, and all the landmarks in between, has
always maintained a special focus on community service. Its tenth year
was no exception for the 28-person group, which included students from
Canada, France, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Among the
highlights were helping a family construct a home in the village of
Ujan, delivering meals at the AGBU Senior Dining Centers, visiting an
orphanage in Gyumri, and donating a record-breaking number of books to
a Stepanakert library.
Every summer since 2009, Discover Armenia groups have arrived with
packages of books for the H. Tumanian National Children's Library in
the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. To date, the program has donated over
2,000 English and French books to the library, filling the shelves of
its foreign language pavilion. This year, during a three-day trip to
NKR, the students toured the space as staff unveiled a plaque honoring
their contributions. Bearing the AGBU Discover Armenia logo, it now
stands proudly among the stacks.
Discover Armenia director Herminé Duzian commented on the plaque's
significance, stating, "Since the very beginning, promoting community
service has been a priority for the AGBU Discover Armenia program. The
diasporan youth have an incredible eagerness to make a difference and
their development projects are some of the most meaningful and
unforgettable parts of the trip. As they volunteer together, they make
lifelong friends and strengthen their bonds with their heritage. They
return home more connected to each other and to the country. We are
very glad to see this plaque in the library."
While the children of Stepanakert take advantage of their new
literature, those in the Terchoonian Home Orphanage in Gyumri will
enjoy heating throughout the winter, made possible by Discover Armenia
participant Philippe Tarjan. A high school senior whose
great-grandmother was rescued by an institution just like the
Terchoonian Home, Tarjan was inspired to give back. In the weeks
leading up to the trip, he organized fundraisers in his New York
hometown, collecting $3,000, which he personally presented to the
organization's director Sona Simonyan. The donation will help keep the
building warm over the next few months, and was one of the many gifts
the Discover Armenia group brought to the youth on their visit.
Tarjan reflected on his project, and the program as a whole,
remarking, "Spending time at the Terchoonian Home was as memorable as
it was emotional. With Discover Armenia, we never felt simply like
tourists. Whether we were helping build homes, keeping senior citizens
company, or paying respects to the sites of our ancestors, we were
always acting as global citizens effecting positive change."
The group celebrated the change they helped create, and the 10 years
that came before them, during a final performance at the AGBU Nork
Children's Center. Throughout their stay, they had participated in a
folk dancing and singing course at the Center, and were ready to take
the stage. Together with the AGBU Yerevan office staff, they
celebrated the end of Discover Armenia's first decade and welcomed the
decades to come during their farewell party.
Applications are currently being accepted for Discover Armenia Summer
2014. Participants are eligible to earn 40 hours of community service
credit at their high schools. For more information, visit
www.discoverarmenia.org or email Herminé Duzian at:
[email protected].
Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world's largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually touching the
lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.
For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please
visit www.agbu.org.
55 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1112
Phone: 212.319.6383
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.agbu.org
PRESS RELEASE
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
AGBU FLAGSHIP PROGRAM DISCOVER ARMENIA CELEBRATES 10 YEARS
MILESTONE ANNIVERSARY MARKS A DECADE OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Since 2003, the AGBU Discover Armenia program has brought diasporan
teens together in their ancestral homeland, where they've created
countless memories-and volunteered hundreds of hours to strengthen
local communities. Now, after a decade of growth, the flagship summer
initiative is celebrating the lives they've touched.
The three-week Discover Armenia trip, which takes participants from
Yerevan to Nagorno-Karabakh, and all the landmarks in between, has
always maintained a special focus on community service. Its tenth year
was no exception for the 28-person group, which included students from
Canada, France, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Among the
highlights were helping a family construct a home in the village of
Ujan, delivering meals at the AGBU Senior Dining Centers, visiting an
orphanage in Gyumri, and donating a record-breaking number of books to
a Stepanakert library.
Every summer since 2009, Discover Armenia groups have arrived with
packages of books for the H. Tumanian National Children's Library in
the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. To date, the program has donated over
2,000 English and French books to the library, filling the shelves of
its foreign language pavilion. This year, during a three-day trip to
NKR, the students toured the space as staff unveiled a plaque honoring
their contributions. Bearing the AGBU Discover Armenia logo, it now
stands proudly among the stacks.
Discover Armenia director Herminé Duzian commented on the plaque's
significance, stating, "Since the very beginning, promoting community
service has been a priority for the AGBU Discover Armenia program. The
diasporan youth have an incredible eagerness to make a difference and
their development projects are some of the most meaningful and
unforgettable parts of the trip. As they volunteer together, they make
lifelong friends and strengthen their bonds with their heritage. They
return home more connected to each other and to the country. We are
very glad to see this plaque in the library."
While the children of Stepanakert take advantage of their new
literature, those in the Terchoonian Home Orphanage in Gyumri will
enjoy heating throughout the winter, made possible by Discover Armenia
participant Philippe Tarjan. A high school senior whose
great-grandmother was rescued by an institution just like the
Terchoonian Home, Tarjan was inspired to give back. In the weeks
leading up to the trip, he organized fundraisers in his New York
hometown, collecting $3,000, which he personally presented to the
organization's director Sona Simonyan. The donation will help keep the
building warm over the next few months, and was one of the many gifts
the Discover Armenia group brought to the youth on their visit.
Tarjan reflected on his project, and the program as a whole,
remarking, "Spending time at the Terchoonian Home was as memorable as
it was emotional. With Discover Armenia, we never felt simply like
tourists. Whether we were helping build homes, keeping senior citizens
company, or paying respects to the sites of our ancestors, we were
always acting as global citizens effecting positive change."
The group celebrated the change they helped create, and the 10 years
that came before them, during a final performance at the AGBU Nork
Children's Center. Throughout their stay, they had participated in a
folk dancing and singing course at the Center, and were ready to take
the stage. Together with the AGBU Yerevan office staff, they
celebrated the end of Discover Armenia's first decade and welcomed the
decades to come during their farewell party.
Applications are currently being accepted for Discover Armenia Summer
2014. Participants are eligible to earn 40 hours of community service
credit at their high schools. For more information, visit
www.discoverarmenia.org or email Herminé Duzian at:
[email protected].
Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world's largest
non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU
preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through
educational, cultural and humanitarian programs, annually touching the
lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.
For more information about AGBU and its worldwide programs, please
visit www.agbu.org.