The mission of the AMAA always reminds us about devotion to God, Christianity, and the motherland. There is a wide variety of services to be of help to the socially vulnerable population of Armenia.
Nowadays more than 1,200 children are without parental care, spending their unguided childhood in various specialized institutions. The UN Children Foundation’s survey shows that 400 of those children are abandoned by their parents and the other 800 have weak and insignificant social and emotional contacts with their families. In other words, these children are either abandoned or one step away from being abandoned. Unfortunately this phenomenon has become a very obvious problem in Armenian society.
The Yerevan Child Care and Protection Boarding School #1 houses some 80 of these vulnerable children whose families are unable or unwilling to care for them. Some of the children are orphans.
On April 1, 2009 a group of AMAA Armenia Yerevan office employees, on their own, visited this boarding school. They raised funds among themselves to reach out and offer several hours of happiness to the children of this boarding school.
In the school auditorium where, after words of greeting, the AMAA choir “Erg-Ergots” offered a mini-concert of spiritual and national songs. The children were especially impressed by the spiritual songs and many of them asked for the lyrics to be able to learn them. Before the second part of the concert, ECA’s Director of Christian Education, Rev. Albert Paityan, entertained the children with stories and riddles. The second part of the concert consisted of lively national songs to which the children and the employees danced national dances with great excitement and joy.
After the end of the concert, when it was time for dinner, the long queue of children went to the dinning hall where a lovely surprise was waiting for them. The AMAA employees served the children pizza. After the dinner, the AMAA staff offered the children gifts of stationary and school supplies.
The event concluded with photo opportunities which both the children and the employees enjoyed.
This visit was a great source of joy for the children of the boarding school. Even more striking was the joy felt by the AMAA employees who once again enjoyed the blessing of reaching out and giving to those less fortunate. It encourages our hearts to see our own employees in Armenia caring enough to sacrifice of themselves to make a difference in children’s lives.
Armenian Missionary Association of America 