Home / National

Armenia Fund announces $5 million in new pledges, donations during telethon

by Silva Sevlian

Published: Thursday December 04, 2008

Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan and Armenia Fund (Western U.S.) Chairwoman Maria Mehranian during the fund's Thanksgiving Day telethon. Arka Photography

Hollywood, Calif. - Having announced pledges of $30 million after a fund raising dinner in Armenia hosted by President Serge Sargsian on November 1, the Armenia Fund announced an additional $5 million in pledges and donations during the annual telethon held on Thanksgiving Day.

The fund had announced $15 million in pledges during the 2007 telethon. The acting executive director said $7.7 million of that money had been received in Yerevan a year later.

This year's 12-hour program was broadcast live from the KCET studios in Hollywood and featured musical performances and appeals made by influential members of the Armenian community.

Greg Boyrazian, director of development for the fund, said the telethon experienced a 20 percent boost in participation.

Key participants included France, Russia, Armenia, and the Western Region of the United States, he said.

"It was the most successful telethon because the public's participation was the highest," said Sarkis Kotjanian, executive director of Armenia Fund (Western U.S.)

The largest pledge, made Nov. 1, was a $15 million contribution from Samvel Karapetian, who is based in Russia. But the organizers of the telethon were focused on involving as large a cross-section as possible of the worldwide Armenian community, with more modest contributions.

"There is nothing more important than what Armenia Fund does," said Mark Geragos, a member of the Armenia Fund International Board of Trustees. "All the organizations belong to it. Everyone has a voice."

Mr. Geragos announced the telethon's progress, working with 100 trained volunteers who were by their telephones processing the donations and pledges.

"Armenia stepped up, the diaspora just stepped up," he said. "It is the most amazing feeling in the world seeing all these kids who were born in America spend there whole day here."

Some of the money will be used in Martuni for hospitals, healthcare centers, schools, and water for drinking and irrigation.

"Think of it as a package. We go into a region, we have our professional assessments done by our experts and they tell us the priority of the region," Mr. Geragos said.

The philosophy of the Armenia Fund is that in one day you can unite the Armenian people around the world, said Hranush Hakobyan, Armenia's diaspora minister.

"As diaspora minister, I feel that it is not the amount of money that is donated but the quantity of people that are participating," she said. "How many people are living and are inspired by the Armenian spirit. I feel that for those people who have Armenian blood in their veins, they need to be attentive and collaborate with the fund and get organized -even with 20 cents, 50 cents, or a dollar."

Members of the senior class at AGBU Manoogian-Demirdjian School presented $35,370.87, which they had raised through a variety of events including a fashion show.

"Small donations add up in the end," said Diana Oganesyan, a senior at the school. "There was a girl from the fourth grade at our school who was saving money over the summer in her piggy bank and she saved $48. Even elementary kids are thinking to donate to Armenia."

The mandate of the organization is to strengthen Armenia and it is evident that Armenia is stronger and able to participate at a high level 11 telethons later with its recent donation of $30 million, said Maria Mehranian, chairperson of the Armenian Fund (Western U.S.)

"After 11 years of telethons and 18 years of the Armenia Fund, we matured enough to truly become this bridge to bring Armenia and the diaspora together," she said. "It's a two way bridge."

"Whoever was in Karabagh 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, and now can see a great contrast, how we have many new achievements," said Archbishop Pargev Martirosian, Primate of the Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Armenia Fund has changed the area by building new roads, renovating schools, hospitals, pipelines, electricity lines, and building new bridges, he said. "The struggle is not only for land, not only for our life, but for our identity and for our future. It was a struggle for all Armenians. It's not a local issue, it's an Armenian issue."

Vahe Karapetyan of Beverly Hills made the largest donation from Southern California, donating $365,000.

Over the past six years, Mr. Karapetyan has donated about $3 million to Armenia Fund, this year he donated $1,000 for each day of the calendar year - a response to the organization's dollar-a-day campaign.

"I'm not giving to an organization, I'm giving to my motherland and to our brothers and sisters who are living there," Mr. Karapetyan said. "Without our motherland we are nothing as a diaspora. Our roots are important and we should be anchored by our roots."