For Immediate Release
July 30, 2012

EDUCATION EXCELLENCE: PRESERVING TRADITION, SECURING THE FUTURE

NEW YORK, New York — Children are the future, and quality education gives these future leaders the necessary skills and knowledge to become productive citizens of our homeland. This is why Armenia Fund continuously maintains its focus on developing and initiating education projects across Armenia and Karabakh.

Within the past few months, Armenia Fund has completed three education projects, two of which included constructing brand new schools. Both communities of Gishi, Vaghuhas and Drakhtik have newly built schools, and the school in Khnapat village has a brand new roof. Once the construction of the school buildings is complete, Armenia Fund can begin equipping them with books, school supplies and state-of-the-art science labs.

Another one of Armenia Fund's recently completed education projects is the renovation of a nursery-kindergarten boarding school, located in Yerevan's Shengavit district, which recently opened its doors after a widespread face-lift. The Shengavit Kindergarten Boarding School shelters children from financially vulnerable families, as well as orphans, all between the ages of 2 and 7. Renovations have been completed on all three buildings of the facility, with a classy new lobby being formed as well as the new design providing additional, through the conversion of balconies into glass-covered rooms. A new playground with modern play equipment and novel furniture in the kitchen and the rest of the rooms in the buildings were all provided by the project. The school's principal voiced her appreciation to the delegation, "Our dear benefactors, generations will come and go, but your marvelous deed will go on to live."

As a result of Mr. and Mrs. Armen and Nadia Ekserciyan's sponsorship, the construction of a new school in Armenia's Tavush Region is on schedule and set to open at the start of the academic year in September 2012. Set in the village of Ditavan, another newly built school is the fourth development project in the community, with the freshly built campus consisting of a two-story building, equipped with an advanced computer room. The 40 or so students enrolled there, who lacked basic amenities in their old school, will now be getting used to a new level of comfort.

Armenia Fund is also involved with in the construction of the Kachatur Abovyan School, located in the Shushi region in Karabakh. This three-story building is designed to hold 1,200 students and is furnished with two computer classrooms.

Most schools that Armenia Fund constructs anew or renovates are equipped with a library, a gym, and most importantly a sanitary environment for students and teachers. In addition, the majority of them also possess science labs and spacious classrooms. Other integral components of the schools, including a new water supply, sewerage, heat and air conditioning systems, are all incorporated into the educational facilities Armenia Fund works on.

Well over 230 schools have been constructed and furnished since the Fund's inception in 1992, with more and more projects being worked on by the year. 2012 will be no different, as Armenia Fund will continue to improve the learning resources available to the Armenian student population.

ARMENIA FUND USA: founded in 1992, was one of the first of “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund’s 20 international affiliates and serves constituents in all states east of the Mississippi. As a non-profit, non-governmental, nonsectarian organization, the Fund represents all Armenian constituents, supporting strategic infrastructure projects in Armenia and Karabakh. The Fund has adopted a policy to go “Beyond Bricks and Mortar” to provide sustainability for projects it sponsors.