Three years ago, Chris Guzelian and Alex Vartan, two students from the Stanford University Armenian Student Association (ASA) founded a student-organized charity called Fast For Armenia. Fast For Armenia calls on Armenians and non-Armenians to engage in a daylong fast on April 24 in remembrance of the 1.5 million Armenians who perished in the 1915 Genocide and to make donations in their memory to perpetuate the dream of the perished for an independent, strong and prosperous Armenia. The future lies in the hands of our children, and Fast For Armenia’s mission is to equip them with the educational tools necessary to face that future.

Currently, Armenian Student Associations at Stanford, Harvard, and University of California, Berkeley universities and Crescenta Valley high school run Fast For Armenia. Other universities and high schools have shown interest in joining them.

Fast For Armenia supports six schools in remote Armenian villages: Akhbradzor and Vanevan in the northeast, Antarout on Mt. Aragats, and Vaghatin, Vaghatur and Shvani Dzor in the south. Some of these villages are literally on the borders, and are so difficult to reach that they rarely receive outside visits. Akhbradzor, on the Azeri border, is completely cut off from civilization during the four winter months. With so little access to the outside world, the lack of educational supplies, and even worse, of food and clothing has reached extreme levels. Often the only meal some of the children receive is at school, as the villagers who have animals donate a portion of the milk, yogurt, and cheese to the school to feed children from refugee families who have practically nothing.

The impact made by these donations has been powerful. While receiving donated items, the principal of the Shvani Dzor school cried, saying, “No one has ever bothered to visit us from outside. We really are the ‘forgotten people’”.

Until Fast For Armenia was founded, many of the children in these villages went to school without textbooks and sat in threes or fours at desks designed for two. They studied geography without ever having seen a map of the world. Many were orphaned by the Karabakh conflict and refugees who fled Azerbaijan to avoid a modern-day genocide. All are kind, sweet, and talented. Some of them are very humble and shy, while others are feisty and excited to speak and ask questions. All are very grateful for their new friends in the US, who generously donate their time, money, and humanitarian efforts to improve the future of the children of Armenia.

To date, thanks to enthusiastic Diaspora participation and the ASA students’ creative idea of making and selling the tri-color “Remember the Forgotten” wristbands, Fast For Armenia has raised over $25,000 and has purchased 600 sets of textbooks and 200 desks for these schools, in an effort to provide each student with his/her own set of books and enough desks to fit two students to a desk. Each school has received a complete set of world and local maps, and some gym equipment. Some in-kind contributions included 370 shirts, over 40 pairs of shoes and 40 backpacks for the Akhbradzor students, 25 classic books by Armenian and non-Armenian authors for the Vanevan and Antarout schools, and 275 kg of raisins, from Armenian Technology Group, all of which will provide opportunities for a brighter future for approximately 1,000 Armenian village students. These goods have been transported to Armenia through the United Armenian Fund airlifts.

Left: Before Fast For Armenia, 8th grade students in Antarout village school on Mount Aragats sat in groups of three and four at desks designed for two. Right: Children of Akhbradzor village school receiving backpacks with stationary and a pair of shoes inside.

As witnessed by many of us who visit these schools during our summer vacations at no cost to the program, the need is still great. The schools are in dire need of repairs, with water leaks in classrooms. School lunch programs, library books, basic laboratory and teaching tools, gym equipment and many other necessities that make education a rewarding experience for the children in the most vulnerable regions of Armenia are still lacking.

We encourage you to visit our website at www.fastforarmenia.org and to consider our children during your Christmas giving.

FFA partners with the Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America, a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization in the US that enables FFA donations to become tax-deductible, and the National Foundation of Science and Advanced Technology, a non profit, tax exempt charitable foundation in Armenia that helps FFA purchase educational materials for the schools, delivers them to these remote villages, and helps ASA students and their representatives visit these villages for inspection.

Tax-deductible contributions can be made payable to: AESA/FFA and sent to:

AESA
417 We. Arden Ave. #112C
Glendale CA 91203

Fast For Armenia Team
www.fastforarmenia.org