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Can we help Armenia.

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  • Can we help Armenia.

    I have an Idea that almost all of us have come across once in our lives
    Well, before you guys get tired of reading what I have to say, I would urge you to keep on reading just a few more paragraphs.
    Last night I was reading an online Armenian newpaper, ArmeniaNow.com One of the stories was about an elderly couple that live in Armenia, and they are literally freezing. The old man, who was nearly 70, was saying how "every evening, when the sun goes down, they try and wait as long as their bodies will handle the cold, before they light any firewood." Before they light the wood, its about 35 degrees in the house, and after they light the wood it becomes 49 degrees. They recieve money from the Armenian government, but GUESS HOW MUCH? The old man gets 7 dollars a MONTH! and his wife gets $6 dollars a month!!! That's $13 dollors a month to live. And you might be thinking that, "hey, in Armenia $13 is enough," but believe me its not, it would be like someone in the US getting $70-80 dollors a month, to use for electricity, water, ect.. This story is very painful to hear. One thing that totally got me was that the old man and his wife have children living in different countries, and the children always beg them to leave Armenia, but the old man said "this is my homeland, it might not be alot, but it's mine." Some people right now would be thinking that this man is stupid, so what if its your homeland? right? leave, so you can live a normal life! And you know what, I agree, why live in such conditions, when you can live a good life somewhere else. That's not all. A few weeks ago, I was reading the newspaper again, and there was a story about a lady with 3 children. And because they are so poor and have no food, the children, without their mom's knowing, walked to a big city in Armenia, and beg for money. These children were 12, 9, 7 years old, I believe. MAN!!! My youngest brother is 10, and I cant see him leaving the house, walking for hours to get to the city, so he can stand on the street and beg for money or food. I am sure you all have siblings, try and imagine your younger brothers, sisters, or even cousins doing this. And there is nothing that this lady can do, if she tells her children not to go, then they will surely starve, and because they go, they are missing out on their childhood and important education. Most of us have been 2Lucky, I, personally, had a good childhood, I dont remember a day that I was hungry, I dont remember a day I was cold, or had to wait a week to take a shower.
    I hope, you dont think that I have been exagerating about any of this, because I have not. This is all true, to the very end.
    So, after reading the elderly couples story, I couldn't sleep last night, well, atleast for a little while. I was trying to think of a way to help these people in need. (I know we've all thought how we can help the unfortunate). I came up with an idea, now, please dont criticize my idea too much, I would like some feedback though. Well this is my IDEA...
    In Armenianclub.com, there are about 50,000 people that are enrolled. Lets say that we had a place on that webpage that would allow people to donate a dollor, just $1 dollor. Now lets say, that out of 50,000 people, half, (25,000) each give $1 dollor, every month. That means that we would collect $25,000 dollors a month, to send to Armenia. $25,000 dollors a month X 12 months, thats $300,000 dollors, that we could sent to Armenia for help. $300,000 dollors could help so many people. And thats only half of Armenianclub giving $1 dollor each month, there are alot more Armenian sites, and if we could get more people to donate $1 dollor a month, which would only be $12 dollors a year. That's like going to see a movie in one night. We could help so many people in need. Now I know what some of you are thinking, you're thinking, "well, I already send money to my relatives there, so I am helping." That's exactly what my family does, we send atleast $300 dollors a month to our families in Armenia. But what about all the elderly people or the people that dont have a way to leave Armenia, and dont have any one to help them. Does anyone think $12 a year, is too much to ask from people. If this did work, it would not only help many suffering Armenians, but I believe that the Armenian economy would benefit from this. All the money that would be collected could be sent to a humanitarian organization in Armenia, and they would be able to dicide how to distribute the money. Now, I know my idea has alot of holes that need patching, but I think we as Armenians are very resourceful, and we are very homogenous (meaning, we are of one). And something like my idea should be inplemented soon. It would give a better life, or even just a stable life, to lots of people. If anyone has any comments please respond.
    Thanks

  • #2
    I wholeheartedly agree. I think you have a great idea here. I don’t know about everyone in ArmenianClub to contribute since a lot of members live out of the United States and Armenia…I’m not sure but it might cause some difficulties to collect money from foreign bank accounts. But for all of the members who have at least their own bank accounts should be able contribute. I’ve always wanted to get involved but it seemed as though a lot of the charities expect more money, like hundreds of dollars, which I don’t have since like most students I don’t often have enough for myself. And the other issue is trust, how would we know that the money we contribute would go to those in need in Armenia? I’m not saying I don’t trust ArmenianClub, I’m glad this site exists but others might not feel like I do or like 2Lucky. But if the whole point of this site is to have Armenian’s coming together shouldn’t we do something “together” to help our own people?

    I remember Armenia and how hard life was there, but that was 12 years ago, I thought for sure things would’ve gotten better by now.

    I really think it’s a great idea, but it’s going to put a lot of work and stress on the people who are in charge of the site to get this kind of thing up and running.

    Comment


    • #3
      Great feedback

      You make a good point, about all the important issues. For the Armenians living outside of the US, I haven't come up with a good idea about how they can help, maybe someone here on the site can think of one. For the trust issue, yes, I was debating over that to myself as well. This is what I came up with, if the organization was set up, then I believe that anyone that wanted to see how the money is being used could, (maybe through some sort of website), so that way, the organization is being checked on periodically, I think this is 1 way to deal with the issue. And also, if my idea, or something similar to my idea, was implemented, I am looking at it in a long run perspective, meaning, (or hoping) that if the charity continues for more the 5, 10, 15 years, it will become a well known charity, and people should have less doubts about trust issues. Personally, I dont think that the administration on Armenianclub.com should handle such a big and important activity, unless they want to, I would not impose such a thing on them, my view on this is that, maybe Armeniaclub would set up a page where the donation process could work, and an outside organization, < one that is involved solely on the donation process would work on it.
      Thanks for the feedback, I really want to know what people think.
      And you made an awsome statement "if the whole point of this site is to have Armenian’s coming together shouldn’t we do something “together” to help our own people?"
      Thanks alot

      Comment


      • #4
        definately a good idea. but now lets try to get this thing on its feet. i think the biggest problem is getting some sort of structure over in Armenia that will be able to honestly and justly disburse the money over there. once we are able to get that than i think the actual money collection wont be as hard.

        Comment


        • #5
          this wont be easy

          You are right, Tigran
          One of the hardest things will be to set up the actual organization in Armenia. What about USAID, we could sent the money to an organization that is already set up. USAID is a humanitarian organization from the US, my dad actually works for USAID in Karabagh. What if the donations were collected, and were sent to USAID, but like I said, I would want a way for who ever would want to check, to be able to check what is happening to the donations, and who it is being donated to. USAID is a very trustworthy organization, it is helping Armenians as we speak. Our donation would help further their cause.
          Hmm... I guess the easy part is thinking up a good idea, the HARD part is actually implementing it. Well, I still dont want to give up though.
          Thanks for the comment
          Karine

          Comment


          • #6
            Well, what can I say? Sure we should help, and yes, we CAN make differences in many lives.

            But, what Armenia needs right now is some sort of investment to PREVENT such things from happening. Comes back to "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, feed him for life".

            A strong economy, or a strong social support system will allow Armenia to take care of these problems on its own. While we should still try to help individual cases, a HUGE part of our energy should go to developping Armenia's ability to be self-suficient...

            Comment


            • #7
              yes of course we need to help Armenia be self sufficient but that is a slow process and we should also be devoting our energies to making the lives of people easier today. I mean look at these 80 year old people living in these unbelievable conditions, can you really go and tell them that you are not really important but the self sufficiency of the country is, wait and everything will get better"?

              We need to have a combination of both

              Comment


              • #8
                Yes of course we do.

                Point is, if we keep on giving money, and sometimes it is not clear where the money truly is going, we might not even be helping anyone at all.

                As you said, either an honest distributing establishment must be put in place, or must be found (as I'm sure there are quite a few in Armenia who DO work honestly).

                I had read an article about one such organization which brought food to the elderly, and helped them pay for heating and housing. The name escapes me. It is such organizations which we need to strengthen, as it will be assured that they can continue their job for a long time. It is always risky for a charity program to run solely on contributions. If we help these charities find other sources of income...then we will really have hit it big. For example, here in Montreal, there is a cafe that is run by a shelter for battered women. The profit is spent on the shelter, and the shelter's survival is pretty much assured.

                Comment


                • #9
                  I cant help but agree with you

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks guys for the great feedback. I guess its going to be much harder then I thought to be able to set up any organization, atleast for now.

                    Comment

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