PRESS RELEASE: “Next Steps” for Birthright Armenia alums

JPEG (from left to right):  Armine Sargsyan, landscape of Kesab, young trainees of Grigoryan Fencing School.    
 

Each year Birthright Armenia designates funds earmarked for its growing base of alumni around the world to utilize for the furthering of their volunteer activity and interests in Armenia.  The “Next Step” Alumni Fund invites alums to submit grant proposals capped at $2,500, that in some way benefit Armenia or Armenians.   To date, 16 such proposals have been funded, including these three new projects that are currently getting underway in Armenia.       

In a timely response to what is taking place in Syria, Raffi Kortoshian (2006) submitted a proposal to produce a publication titled “The Historical Monuments of Kesab”, documenting all monuments of Kesab together with their Armenian inscriptions and epitaphs of funerary memorials.  Raffi, born and raised in Aleppo, has been living in Armenia ever since volunteering with Birthright Armenia eight years ago at the Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA) NGO.  The $2,500 grant will offset the costs of this RAA publication, an illustrated color booklet of about 100 pages, in Armenian, that will include information about the earliest inhabitants of Kesab, who arrived there in the times of the Cilician Kingdom. It will include high-quality photographs, maps, tracings and measurements, and will be a significant historical resource for scholars, future students, as well as those who were once inhabitants  of Kesab.  

During Soviet Armenia times, the Grigoryan Fencing School was a prestigious school founded in 1969 as a sports youth club.  In 1974 the school was rewarded for its successful work by the Olympic Committee, as it trained USSR world champions and prize winners as well as master trainers.  In 2012, Alex Azizian, originally from Los Angeles, came to Armenia as a one year volunteer with Birthright Armenia, and was placed at the fencing school as an assistant trainer.  After his volunteer service, he continued to stay involved with the school, which is in dire need of remodeling and safe equipment to ensure each student’s safety.  This safety issue is what drove Alex to start an Indiegogo online fundraising effort for the school, which provides an important after school activity for over 150 young kids from Yerevan.  The goal was to raise $7,500 to address the school’s immediate needs.  Half-way through the Indiegogo campaign Birthright Armenia responded to Alex’s “Next Step” proposal request by pledging to match dollar for dollar what he raised online up to $2,500, which helped to significantly propel Alex’s effort and eventually reach his desired goal.  The students will soon have new safety vests, masks, swords and a fencing strip upon which to train.  “Their equipment was completely worn out, but their spirits are very high and the ambition is to represent Armenia in the Olympic Games in the future,” says Alex.     

The third “Next Step”Alumni Fund grant of $2,500 was awarded to Armine Sargsyan (2011), whose project “Preserving Hrazdan Park” aims to revive the neglected central park in Hrazdan, the capital of the Kotayk region.  By design the project is multi-layered, as it includes a cleanup and upcycling campaign, renovation of an open air stage, building a playground, tree planting, and environmental training on sanitary waste management for environmental and public health, all coming together to provide a well needed urban green space in Hrazdan for public recreation and community events.  Armine has successfully garnered the support of local partners on the ground with local government authorities and community groups to pull their resources together to turn this often used park as a dumping ground for household waste into an active place for recreation and relaxation.  With the Birthright Armenia Next Step grant of $2,500 she was awarded, a park playground will be constructed by the expertise of a local carpenter.  

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Birthright Armenia’s mission is to strengthen ties between the homeland and diasporan youth by affording them an opportunity to be a part of Armenia’s daily life and to contribute to Armenia’s development through work, study and volunteer experiences, while developing a renewed sense of Armenian identity. For more information, please visit our website at www.birthrightarmenia.org.