YEREVAN—On June 14, the United States ambassador to Armenia, John A. Heffern, and members of the U.S. Embassy’s Helping Hands organization together with the Fuller Center for Housing Armenia (FCHA) helped to reconstruct the floor of the Tsitsikian Music School’s recital hall.
The U.S. Embassy and FCHA have been partnering since 2008. Every year, the embassy’s personnel join FCHA local and international volunteers to help low-income families build their own homes. This time, the partners joined to help the A. Tsitsikian Musical School. Helping Hands financed the construction materials, the FCHA organized the construction day, and in just one day, with the help of 30 volunteers, the new cement floor of the school’s recital hall was laid.
The Anahit Tsitsikian Music School was established 25 years ago and has seen successive generations of children learn music. The building, however, was getting old and there was no budget to renovate it. The children often gave concerts in such various venues as orphanages, nursing and retirement homes, and in villages. Last spring, the students performed at the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan.
On June 14, more than 30 people from the U.S. Embassy and FCHA gathered at the Anahit School. “We are thrilled and grateful that all these people took the time and effort to help us renovate our recital hall. I have not seen such well-organized construction work in a long time!” said Noune Shamakhian, the director of the Anahit Tsitsikian Music School. “With nice music in the background and cheerful mood the time flew very fast. It took only one day for the floor of the entire hall to be almost repaired. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to Mr. Ambassador John A. Heffern and all those who worked that day. Mr. Ambassador’s joining everyone in this hard labor was a truly inspiring and humbling experience.”
The Fuller Center for Housing Armenia is a non-government, charitable organization that supports community development in the Republic of Armenia by assisting in building and renovating simple, decent, and affordable homes, as well as advocating the right to a decent shelter as a matter of conscience and action. FCHA provides long-term, interest-free loans to low-income families. The monthly repayments flow into a Revolving Fund, which is used to help more families, thereby providing a financial foundation for a sustainable community development effort. For more information, visit www.fullercenterarmenia.org.
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Great work . Know can we get the US embassy to
1) tell Azerbaijan to stop its Cultural terrorism/ Genocide against the Armenian people
2) tell Turkey to open its borders better yet give back out ancestral homeland even better Armenians will give America all the rights to the Incirlik Air Base in exchange for autonomy for the Armenian people.
3) Instead of pumping money into Arabia our door is open for your business .