Success stories

Thanks to a generous gift from a vacation bible school group in Iowa, seven year old Arusik received two digital hearing aids. Arusik lives in Vanadzor city, Armenia with her parents, two older sisters and one younger brother. This city suffered severe damage and thousands died during the 1988 earthquake, the effects of which are still seen today. Arusik and her family live in a rundown one-bedroom apartment with broken windows and doors.

They live on the 8th floor with an elevator that has been out of order for almost 10 years. All three sisters have serious hearing difficulties, only the young brother can hear and speak well. The girls try very hard to interact with their peers, but since they cannot hear well, they cannot pronounce all the sounds accordingly, making it difficult to understand what they say. In spite of all the challenges, they are enjoying their life within the walls of their poor but loving house with a caring mother and father, who struggle to provide everything it takes to make sure their children get proper education for the future. With the digital hearing aids, Arusik hears almost perfectly and her doctor says she will improve her ability to speak clearly very soon, which is very important for Arusik, since she wants to become a teacher.

During Armenia's worst period of political and economic instability, Hovhannes started a farm from nothing in the abandoned and devastated village of Tghkut. Today, Hovhannes is a prosperous farmer. In 1989 Hovhannes began his career as a farmer by caring for the livestock of neighboring farms. Seven years ago, he borrowed 10 cows to start his own farming business. He managed to buy the cows in two years, making the start of a rewarding business. In 2005 Hovhannes was given the opportunity to receive a favorable micro-credit from the Jinishian Memorial Foundation (JMF). JMF had decided to extend its micro-credit services to the Meghri region after a study revealed the Meghri region, which includes Tghkut, had no access to micro-credits due to its remoteness from the capital city Yerevan.

During a period of three years Hovhannes had the highest repayment rate of any borrower and enlarged his livestock more than four times. Now he is an "A" class borrower, which means he receives the best interest rate and biggest available micro-credits. Moreover, he is a famous in the region for his high quality and great tasting cheese.

The remote community of Arevatsag in north Armenia’s Alaverdi region will finally have the kindergarten it has lacked for nearly 18 years after winning a grant from the well-known donor organization – Jinishian Memorial Foundation, and securing funding for its staff.

Some 20 children will soon attend the pre-school education facility to be constructed within the facilities of the Arevatsag Secondary School.

“Our village has not had a kindergarten since 1991, and sometimes it has been hard to explain to my children what a kindergarten is and what it looks like”, said Artur Meliksetyan, who actively participated in the proposal writing process. When World Vision’s Alaverdi Area Development Programme (ADP) started in 2008, it soon became evident at community gatherings that establishing a kindergarten was a key priority in Arevatsag village.

World Vision Armenia mobilised the community by facilitating dialogue between different stakeholders and encouraging each of the representative groups – village mayor, teachers, students, and parents - to give their feedback on the problems the community faced and share their part of the responsibility in resolving them.

The project Ensure Sustainability of Rehabilitation Treatment in Marzes of Armenia builds the capacity of regional doctors and nurses and creates rehabilitation teams for early diagnosis and treatment of childhood disabilities. Initiated in 2007 by the Jinishian Memorial Foundation, the project has transformed the lives of hundreds of children with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, congenital hip disorders, and scoliosis.

Nine year-old Arsen Tigranyan from Ashtarak town is one of the children positively affected by the project. Unlike other children, Arsen did not attend school or play in playgrounds, because his disability affected his ability to walk. He felt isolated and never imagined he could be an equal member of his community.

One of the world’s oldest civilizations, Armenia was the first in the world to officially accept Christianity as its state religion. Unfortunately many decades of communist agnostic propaganda diminished the strong spiritual roots and traditions in the country. As a result of this spiritual gap, there is a lack of functioning churches and priests in many communities of Armenia. People’s knowledge about Christianity is very limited and is mainly based on the talks and ideology of parents that were strongly influenced by communistic atheism.

Recognizing the spiritual need to reach people with the gospel and to bring communities back to church, in 2006 the Jinishian Memorial Foundation-Armenia (JMF-Armenia) and the dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church together started a project called Spiritual Education and Experiences for Children.

National Debate Championship (NDC) is the name given to the closing event, which brings together representatives of all 80 schools that participate in “Youth Engaged in Society” (YES) debate club project being implemented and funded by Jinishian Memorial Foundation and “Youth for Achievements” educational NGO and co-funded by European Union. This special championship is organized at the end of each academic year and has a very unique character. At first sight the National Championship is a “championship” which presupposes competition of teams, but in reality each year this event turns out to be a real celebration for all directly and indirectly involved in the project: debate club members, their mentors, parents, teachers, judges of debates and project implementers as well.

NDC 2008 took place on May 7-8 in Yerevan Marriott hotel conference hall and became the biggest of all championships organized so far within YES project. It counted 14 teams and overall more than 100 participants. “For me, personally, the most challenging, yet the most exciting in the Championship was the fact that our team united representatives of 6 different schools of our town, most of whom were our ‘rivals’ during previous debates. However, today, I can state that now I have 5 new friends and hope for this friendship to carry on”, said one of the members of Gyumri 1 team.

Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases among non-communicable diseases. About 50,000 people are suffering from diabetes in Armenia. The burning issue is the rejuvenation of diabetes, i.e. diabetes now starts in early childhood and continues throughout life, gradually becoming more debilitating if not controlled and treated early. Diabetes is not an entirely curable disease, but proper treatment may essentially reduce the severity of the disease. For children diagnosed with diabetes it is a turning point in life, since they should accept and understand numerous changes in their life activities including daily frequent blood tests and injections, rigid nutrition ration and balanced physical loads.

 To improve the quality of life of children under 18 years suffering from diabetes in Armenia Jinishian Memorial Foundation (JMF) initiated the ”Control and Management of Diabetes” project and established the Diabetes School at the Center of Children Endocrinology of Armenia. With help of leading specialist Dr. Elmira Pashinyan and center’s personnel doctors from remote areas of Armenia get professional training, children and their parents get informed about the main rules for diabetes control, learn to take care of themselves, measure glucose on their own, as well as get their own way to overcome the stress.