The role played by the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) is exceptional

I attached my aided translation of the known journalist Sako Arian's posting today on his Սագօ Արեան – Լրագրողի էջը Facebook page.  The Armenian government has approved a joint program with the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) to construct and subsequently maintain an educational complex in Vardenis, Gegharkunik Province. AMAA already runs the Khoren and Shooshanig Avedisian School, named after the benefactor Edward Avedissian's genocide survived parents. The high school is tuition-free and is located in the Malatia-Sebastia district of Yerevan. The title of the blog is a quote from Sako Arian's post. Vaհe H Apelian

Courtesy Sako Arian

Sako Arian wrote:

«I cannot perceive the terms "homeland-building" and "nation-building" in any other way. Not because these words sound beautiful, but because a homeland is not built through speeches.

A homeland is built the day you construct a school for 700 children in the border town of Vardenis.

The day you build a kindergarten.

The day you tell a child: "Your future is here, and we are building something for that future."

Acknowledging the right steps taken is, therefore, not only important but essential. For we are sometimes so accustomed to criticizing, complaining, and looking for flaws in everything that we forget to even notice positive and correct actions.

And this is one of those undertakings that ought to be spoken about. Ultimately, beyond mere words, building a homeland begins at the educational hearth—the school.

And here, the role played by the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) is exceptional. For years, in various communities across Armenia, they have moved beyond rhetoric to build schools, kindergartens, and educational and community centers.

In other words, rather than simply saying "we are building the homeland," they have come and actually built something within it.

The Vardenis project is significant in this very sense.

A school with a capacity of 700, a preschool for 150 children, and a day center for 60—this is not merely a project involving new buildings.

It conveys a very simple message to the child:

You have a future here. And that is where I see the building of the homeland.

Not in loud declarations, but in the building that an Armenian child will enter tomorrow, schoolbag on their shoulder.

A homeland exists where a school is being built for children."

                                        XXX

 

Sometime ago, as I was watching PM Nikol Pashinyan touring the Avedissian School in Armenia, I came across my mother’s portrait, painted by her niece Annie Chelebian Hoglind, hanging on the wall in the School’s Library.  The Avedissian School had my mother’s portrait hang in the Western Armenian Section of the school’s library, honoring her half a century teaching of Armenian language and literature, mostly in Armenian Evangelical Schools in Kessab, Bourj Hammoud and Los Angeles My mother’s estate had made provision to donate to Armenian Evangelical School in Armenia. Thanks  to Zaven Khanjian, I had her portrait sent  from LA by Mike Apelian,  to the school. I am grateful  and thankful that the school’s board has kept her portrait on the wall in the school’s library. Underneath the portrait her career teaching Western Armenian is also framed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest is just talk.»