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ORRAN BENEVOLENT NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION December 2005 “HELPING FAMILIES IN NEED” 6 First Yekmalyan Street, Yerevan 375002, Republic of Armenia, Tel: +374 10 535167, E-mail: [email protected], http://www.orran.am Principal Benefactors Dear Benefactors and Supporters of Orran; December 2005 Mr. and Mrs. Krikor and Anna Krikorian Operational Achievements for 2005 How your generosity is making a difference Mr. and Mrs. Gerard and Cleo Cafesjian 1. Children – Newcomers. We are pleased to advise that with your increased financial support, 33 new Ms. Carolyn Mugar children between the ages of six to sixteen are now coming to Orran on a daily basis. Mr. and Mrs. Gavin and Yeana Boyle 2. Children – Leavers. 25 children have left after numerous years growing up in the Orran environment • 4 have gone into further education, which is being funded by Orran, bringing the total number of those being funded for vocational training to 9. If you would like to be a personal sponsor for any one of these children, then please refer to our web site for details. • 6 are now seeking employment in the following businesses: Jewellery (1), Hairdressing (3), Orran’s Mission is to: Culinary (2). • Divert children from the • 5 have left as the welfare of their families has improved. streets and engage them in • 10 can no longer attend as the school shift has changed from morning to afternoon. academic, cultural, and 3. Elderly – Newcomers. We have welcomed 7 new elderly to Orran. extra-curricular activities 4. Elderly – Leavers. We have lost 6 elderly citizens. Four have unfortunately passed away having spent • Fight the concept of beggar their last days at Orran amongst their friends. One has gone to an elderly home and one has left to children as the principal join her family in Russia. breadwinners of their families We are also happy to inform you that there has been a significant increase in the total number of Orran • Help families “in crisis” beneficiaries due to your increase in generosity. There are now 50 families who visit Orran on an irregular basis, due to shortage of funds. Unfortunately priority has to be given to the most needy cases. • Assist the lonely and needy We would like to thank our donors, supporters, our 8 full time and 12 part time staff and our 15 elderly volunteers in helping Orran achieve its mission, with special thanks to all our staff who help all our • Identify and develop beneficiaries and provide over 100 meals a day! children’s interests and talents toward a working career Fund Raising Highlights for 2005 • Prevent the spread of We are most grateful to the Marriott Armenia for undertaking a “Month of Orran” at the hotel. The destitution and begging partnership of Orran and the Marriott hotel in September was a unique attempt to help the fight against among Armenia’s children destitution and begging on Yerevan’s streets. On Wednesdays at 5pm, the children of Orran performed and elderly traditional Armenian songs and dances at the entrance of the hotel. The children played a great part in sharing traditional Armenian culture with visitors during the busiest month of the tourist season. Hotel guests were encouraged to interact with the children and elderly and to purchase arts and “Helping Families in Need” crafts the children had made. When We now take daily care of: checking out of the Hotel or paying a restaurant or café bill, patrons were • 70 children given the opportunity to make a • 47 elderly donation to Orran. Krikor and Anna and an additional 50 families Krikorian kindly matched all on a part-time basis only due to contributions and paid for all the shortage of funds. Unfortuna- associated expenses. We are pleased to tely we can only meet the most advise the total amount raised was Mr. and Mrs. Vahe and Grace Paklayan and Mr. and Mrs. Krikor and Anna needy cases due to financial $8,000. We would like to thank everyone Krikorian in London at the Square and Level Lodge fund raising dinner for Orran. considerations. who donated to Orran’s worthwhile cause. We would also like to thank Vahe and Grace Paklayan, for raising $4,800 as chairman of the Square and Level Lodge in London with the ladies charity dinner raising half the above sum. Our thanks also go to Haig and Cindi Krikorian for raising $1,200 at a charity dinner held in their Lalimes restaurant in San Francisco. These functions are not only fun but raise badly needed funds for the young and elderly in Armenia. Help us to reduce our postal Mr. Pakrad Markarian of California is another humble yet fervent supporter of Orran. His lovely costs and stay in contact with wife Katrine and children Sevan and Talin visit Orran every summer. Mr. Markarian does his own you by sending us your email fundraising and every year comes with a generous lump sum amount gathered from his friends and address. colleagues. Orran Benevolent NGO Registered Charity No. 271.171.00931 Board of Directors: SUSAN YACUBIAN KLEIN, VAHE KEUSHGUERIAN, ARMINE K. HOVANNISIAN, ARSHAVIR KAPOUDJIAN, JACKIE HYDE Advisor: KRIKOR KRIKORIAN Executive Director: HERIKNAZ HARUTYUNYAN Founders: ARMINE AND RAFFI K. HOVANNISIAN ORRAN BENEVOLENT NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION December 2005 “HELPING FAMILIES IN NEED” Our Benefactors and Supporters both from the Diaspora and the Homeland make many and varied contributions to the work of Orran. We are grateful for your efforts. We will take the opportunity in this and future newsletters to mention a selection. This month we would like to recognize the generosity of Mr. Pavel Katchatryan, a successful entrepreneur who has a very attractive sports club/diner in the heart of the Mrs. Megan Doyle sharing pictures with the children. Mr. John Waters being hugged by little Mariam. capital. Mr. Katchatryan serves breakfast to ten Orran children every Sunday morning. The kids have more incentive to perform well at school, now that there is a special reward on the weekend! The Armenian Educational Foundation was celebrating its 55th anniversary and made sure that Orran had something to celebrate too. The Baghdassarian, Lais and Kassabian families had generously decided that their guests would make contributions to Orran in lieu of gifts to the baptism of their grandchildren, Anthony Hacop Baghdassarian and Lisa Lousin Kassabian. What a wonderful lesson on Christianity for the little ones. Foundation members Mr. and Mrs. Hagop and Mina Shirvanian, Alice Petrossian, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph and Savey Tufenkian are old friends and supporters of Orran. They visit periodically and bask in the progress they see. On this visit, they brought friends who much appreciated seeing the computer room that their own members Mr. and Mrs. Alec and Alenoush Baghdassarian had supported. Dr. Alice Saraydarian, a Board member of the Children of Armenia Fund and a driving force behind the establishment of the dental clinic at Orran has been sending equipment, medicine and tools to prepare the clinic for its opening. Currently, we are interviewing prospective dentists to start our dental services. We are touched that the Cafesjian Family Foundation has committed to help meet more of Orran’s needs. We were pleased to welcome Mr. John Waters, Vice President of the Foundation when he visited Orran accompanied by Foundation Board members Mr. and Mrs. Dennis and Megan Doyle. Escorting them were old and favorite friends of Orran Mr. and Mrs. Arthur and Madlene Ispiryan, Public Relations and Events Director of the Cafesjian Museum Foundation. How you can Help We are proud to publish our first list of donors who have generously donated over a million dollars to Orran’s worthwhile cause. We are pleased also to announce that we have taken new fundraising initiatives as highlighted on our web site. These include • sponsoring a child for $1, $2, or $3 per day • sponsoring the elderly at $0.66 per day • sponsoring the vocational training for children over the age of 15 from a single donation of $70 to a yearly commitment of $400 for 4 years • making pledges for annual donations. It’s only by having these pledges that we can plan ahead with confidence knowing our income is secure in the years ahead • remembering Orran in your legacies Last but no least, by becoming a “Friend of Orran”. Mr. Vahe Keushguerian, Director of Highlights for 2006: International Marketing and Fund Raising is about to initiate a new worldwide program called “Friends of Orran”. It aims to allow more and more people to embrace the mission of Orran We hope to open a new centre outside and to raise badly needed funds for Orran’s worthwhile cause in “Helping Families in Need”. Yerevan in one of the most needy places. For further information on how to become a “Friend of Orran” please contact Vahe Please help us raise our target of Keushguerian at [email protected]. $250,000 for this new centre. And you can do all this by making payments directly over the web site. Cultural & Recreational News in 2005 Orran ensures that culture is an integral part of the children’s lives. This quarter, the children were visited by a number of prominent artists, and attended a number of events. Andre, Armenia’s top pop-star, spent a whole afternoon with them. Anna Mailyan, a renowned soprano, enchanted the children with her magical voice. And Armine Hairapedyan not only sang, but brought handmade handkerchiefs, personalized with the initials of each first-grader. The children were excited to meet Olga Ayvazyan, a renowned singer and Nazeni Hovhannisyan, a talk show hostess. Both ladies were involved in a fashion show, the proceeds of which were donated to Orran.