Readers' comments

Would you like to post a comment ? Be the first to share your thoughts.

Post a comment

Comments are welcomed and encouraged. However, comments not pertaining to the topic or containing slander or offensive language will be deleted. You have to be registered to be able leave your comment. Sign in or Register now for free.

Enlarge Photo

Ah, camp joys

Enlarge Photo

Little helpers feed little campers

“It is difficult to work with orphans. For the whole of their lives they’ve wanted to know why they have been left in this status, often they seek a share of guilt in themselves. They think their father or mother would not have left them had they been good,” Our Lady of Armenia Camp supervisor Sister Arousiag Sajonian says. “We try to help them get rid of this complex, help them understand that it is not their fault that they are orphans now.”

Artur Khachatryan, 13, is from the town of Tashir in the northern Lori region. Artur’s beautiful eyes are filled with grief and sorrow.

“We are returning home in two days. I don’t want to leave this place. I like it here, even the strict discipline we have here. We’ve been taught how to cope with difficulties in life,” he says.

For 14 years Our Lady of Armenia Center has organized summer camps in which the charges of the Poghosian Educational Complex, as well as children of Shirak, Lori, Ararat, Armavir, Tashir, Yerevan, Tsaghkadzor, Javakhk take part. Last year ten children from Nagorno-Karabakh also attended in the camp.

Sister Arousiag remembers how the idea to have this camp was first conceived.

“After the 1988 earthquake we have taught religion in different villages of the Shirak region, after that we worked at the Psychological Center of Spitak. We dealt with children who had simply been left to the mercy of fate. Many were coming even without having had breakfast. I always thought that it was worth having a center where it would be possible to take them out of their surroundings, from the sad family environment for at least three weeks,” she says.

Finding sponsors, Sister Arousiag is fulfilling her dream. In 1994, the camp was operating in Hankavan, in the next two years in Byurakan. But then she decided that the camp needed to have its own building. Due to the Armenian Alliance organization whose members are seven Diaspora-Armenian businessmen, they purchase a building for the camp.

Group leader Mariam Mkrtchyan is from Gyumri. She came to the camp in 1995 as a camper, since 2003 she has been a group leader. Her group is called “Lusavorich”, or Illuminator.

“I am transferring to them all that I once received myself. I have senior ones in my group and it is more difficult to work with them, but my experience helps me out,” Mariam says.

Children aged 8 to 14 can attend the camp. In summer months Our Lady of Armenia Camp receives 840 children in four different shifts. Every shift includes 210 children. Children are split into six different groups who have their leaders and assistants. During classes groups are divided into smaller groups. They study the history of religion, singing, dancing, English and French, do sports, learn to draw, take sewing and dress-making courses, learn hygiene and health-and-safety.

“Our goal is to transfer to the rising generation the spiritual knowledge and moral values. We try to develop Christian values in children,” Sister Arousiag says.

Numerous volunteers both from Armenia and Diaspora visit here every year. Students Lisa Kebejian and Armen Kherlopian came from New York. They are future doctors and work at the camp’s small dental clinic.

Armen says that the first time they came to the camp was in 2005, however at that time they worked as volunteers at Nork Marash Hospital and had come to Armenia through the Armenian Assembly of America.

Armenian Assembly of America Armenia and Karabakh Country Director Arpi Vartanian says it is very important for Diaspora youths like Armen and Lisa to come to Armenia as volunteers to learn more things about the country locally and be useful for their homeland. She says Armen and Lisa are a bright example of this. As students without jobs they managed to find means to help Our Lady of Armenia Camp.

“At that time we decided to do something to help this camp. And our goal was to reequip this small dental clinic,” Armen says.

Lisa remembers how they and other Armenian students organized the first charitable concert that for the first time raised as much as $2,500. After that they began to look for money to purchase new instruments and an X-ray machine for the dental clinic. Today, Armen is proud to say that everything is in place and they already can treat the children.

Doctor Susanna Margaryan is from Gyumri. She has worked in the camp for eight years. She says that the purchase of new equipment was very important for the dental clinic.

“To treat a tooth seeing the root is one thing and without seeing the root is another thing. We are grateful both to Armen and Lisa and all our other sponsors,” she says.

Armen says that the program was implemented through the University of Maryland School of Medicine, the University of Maryland School of Public Health, the New York Academy of Medicine and the Birthright Armenia organization.

“We also conduct classes with children about dental care and hygiene,” Lisa says, showing a brochure published through her efforts especially for the children of the camp, through which they can learn the rules of dental hygiene.

Some children from borderlands are also attending the camp this year. Sister Arousiag says they are selected by a special committee whose members visit villages and meet local families. This year they are mainly from the Shirak region – from Amasia to Anipemza.

Drawing teacher Vardevar Shamamyan is one of the committee members. She says that drawing helps children get rid of their complexes.

“There is an internal protest in their hearts, their lines are broken, colors are sharpened. When they draw one can feel that they lack imagination, there are no characters in their drawings, but gradually they start to change and open up for dialogue,” Vardevar says.

Sister Arousiag says that the depreciating dollar affects the camp’s work. Still in January they began to write letters to their relatives to give sponsorship to one child’s three-week rest. This year’s budget has totaled $130,000.

“Some decide to sponsor one child, others give sponsorship to a dozen. Expenses for one child add up to $130. Of course, it is difficult to find sponsors, but we have very profound faith. God always helps us,” she says.

Armenian children from the Diaspora also come to the camp. This year 12 children will come from Beirut, there will also be children from the United States. At the camp children participate in morning and evening prayers, in regular and Sunday liturgies and religious ceremonies.

Sister Arousiag says that every year special weekends are organized at Our Lady of Armenia Camp for foreign ambassadors working in Armenia, all benefactors of the camp and numerous other senior guests. This year the day will be on August 12.