Yeghegnadzor: your donations

Dear donors,

This post is meant to offer a rough idea of where your donations have been distributed. (If anyone has specific questions, please feel free to get in touch with me via this blog or email.)

Accounting

Nearly $20,000 have thus far been collected for this mission, mostly through donations made to the Atken Armenian Foundation (AAF). I had collected the first $15,100, and through Dora Sakayan's help, who I wrote about here, an additional $4,631 so far have been raised, a total which may increase further in the coming days. The latter donations have not been distributed yet, I hope they will be before I leave here next week, so that I can personally vouch for their whereabouts.

There are several ways the funds were collected: by far, most of the donations were collected through the Ottawa Armenian community, following a request for donations sent out via our Ottahye email list, sent directly to the AAF ($5,139). I had also opened other accounts, some of which had about a 3% service fee. These include a Facebook fundraising page, which raised $1840 (minus fees), a GoFundMe page ($600, minus fees), and the AAF's Facebook page ($600 minus fees). Also we received several personal or certified cheques ($5,800), and cash ($300), and a donation of $915 from my old dance troupe (go Ani!!!), for a total of $15,194 (minus the fees, which come to about $90). 

Donors were asked what projects they wanted to fund, having been given the choice between offering money for soldier's families, for displaced Artsakh families, for education, for the needy, for culture, or for any special requests. Apart from these, about $1,850 had been predestined to go to specific people. I also elected, on the spot, to fund certain specific programs related to culture, music or education of some sort. It was requested that the largest chunk ($5,800) be dispersed to deceased or injured soldier's families. Another $1,000 was either for artsakh families, and if not possible, for soldier's families. Another $75 was for Artsakh refugees. For the rest of the money, I was given discretion on spending.

Money distribution

There were a few logistical issues I will briefly touch upon. First, some of the money was disbursed in Canadian dollars, some in US dollars, but the vast majority was given out in Armenian Drams (֏). The Armenian ֏ was most difficult to secure because I needed to exchange a large amount of CAD for it, which could only be done in 2 hour away Yerevan. This took a week longer than expected, because of the snowfall 2 weeks ago affecting the roads, which would have significantly increased the 2 hour drive, to 4 or 5 probably. Regrettably there were no banks anywhere closer than Yerevan that would exchange CAD.

I worked in close collaboration with the very capable local NGO which I have often written about, Syunik NGO, to decide where the money will be spent within the province of Vayots Dzor. The province is known as a wine region and was becoming an increasingly booming tourism centre, until Covid essentially shut down tourism. Fortunately, although much of the ground is not considered particularly fertile, agriculture is one of the most common activities in the province, especially for the production of local varieties of grapes for wine, and these hardworking villagers can grow most of what they eat.

When specifying where most of the money was to be spent, and realizing that the fund wasn't that large, I requested to help those most in need if at all possible. Within the province of Vayots Dzor there were about 200 families with a deceased or lost soldier. Of these, 50 were identified who also had children, thus as most in need. Additionally, of 90 wounded soldiers, 20 were identified as coming from the most destitute villages. Each of those 50 + 20 families received or will receive 50,000֏ (about $125).

I personally visited 16 of the families of the missing or deceased on January 21st and 22nd (two families had lost two soldiers) and distributed the funds, having written about my experience in some detail on January 21st and January 23rd. Emergency money from the national government is supposed to be forthcoming, but paperwork is difficult and the bureaucracy is a bit slow. It is thus hoped that the money I distributed or left there for distribution will allow each of those families to buy essential goods for a few weeks. The reason why I visited so few, other than the fact that they were in faraway villages which were even more difficult to access because of the snow, was that we had not yet exchanged the CAD cash I had on hand. The families of the other 32, and the 20 injured, will have the money distributed to them in the coming weeks by the staff of Syunik NGO. Since I was unable to visit more families, and for the sake of transparency, Syunik NGO will be providing a complete list of these 70 recipients, including their telephone numbers, for verification purposes. This comes to roughly $8,750 CAD of all the funds distributed or to be distributed. I should say that none of the money from this fund went to the NGO staff and their time, or to transportation costs: so I thank the organizations that provide Syunik NGO with the provisions they need to render basic aid, which allowed our funds to get to their (often difficult to reach) destinations.

Some pictures of the recipients:

A grieving mother (holding her son's picture) 
and grandmother

Hasmik, patiently listening to a bereaved mother

Most homes had such shrines to the deceased
displayed in a prominent corner

The brother of the deceased,
who accepted the donation on behalf of his family
(and offered me some homemade wine in thanks)

A note on Artsakh refugees: there are several international organizations sending food, clothing and money for displaced refugees from Artsakh, and I personally saw the work done (even participating to some degree) between Sunday January 24th and Tuesday January 26th, which I detailed quite a bit here. After consultation with staff from Syunik NGO regarding this, I decided that the need was greater for the average citizen from Vayots Dzor, especially those who lost family members to the war, and so no additional money was provided by this fund to date for Artsakh refugees. Syunik NGO is already spending a lot of its time doling out food, clothing and other goods to the roughly 2,000 displaced from Artsakh still in the province of Vayots Dzor, provided by a plethora of international organizations, Armenian and otherwise, and even some domestic. However, there is a suggestion to fund about $2,000 for providing clothing, heating for a dance hall, and dance instruction for a children's dance troupe from Artsakh, which I am looking into. The cost seems rather high, so I will be looking for further details before making a decision.

There are some places where I decided to fund a given project on the spot. For example, the brother of one of the deceased soldiers from Vayk, whose wife and kids were away so we gave him the money for the family, had set up a gym and was teaching boxing, in an unheated large old Soviet style building. I was amazed that about 30 boys were hard at work, with gear and an improvised boxing ring (apparently, he had personally paid for all the gear). I admired his commitment and offered him $100 CAD for his efforts, enough to buy a few used gloves. Similarly, I had been offered a visit to the Yeghegnadzor music school, and was so impressed with the school and administrator Maro Simonyan that on the spot I offered her $100 USD I had in my pocket, which she said would be used to buy one music class uniforms. Each of these individuals signed receipts for the AAF, which is done for the sake of transparency and to offer a clear explanation of where the donations would be used. Another $500 CAD should be donated to three children from the Hagopyan family from Aghnjadzor, that the AAF has supported for years now, which will provide them with two years of music instruction.

The boxing hall in Vayk

Some students from the Yegh. music school

A student performing for me at the Yegh. Music school

As mentioned, Davit, a dance instructor from Yeghegnadzor, told me that instruction of folk dancing was halted since Covid-19 hit last March, because the provincial administration shut down the places where such instruction took place. As such, I asked him for a list of dance instructors from the surrounding regions as well, and four were identified. Syunik NGO offered $100 CAD to each from the fund, diligently sending me signed receipts for each recipient just today. I felt it fitting that some of the money provided by my old dance group be used as such.

I will eventually include more info about several of these people, including pictures and videos, and other places I visited in a forthcoming post. I wanted to get all of this info down first, to give a basic accounting to all of you generous people who decided to support my project of helping Armenians from this wonderful part of the country.

By my count, I left around $14,500 in Yeghegnadzor, most of which still needs to be distributed.