Helping children in Hayasdan

Parev Tsez! I am a friend of Levon (we met in Hayasdan) and I currently live in New Jersey, where I am going to school. While Levon and Arman keep you abreast of West-Coast Armenian life, I hope to provide information and insights about happenings in the East-Coast Armenian community (since not everyone can live in LA). I will also share my thoughts and opinions about Armenian issues and I hope you will comment and give us feedback.

So, on the topic of children in Armenia, there is a French-Armenian organization, DA-Connexion, which has now spread to the United Kingdom whose mission is to help the children of Hayasdan. I became aware of this association through a French-Armenian, Raffi Sarafian, who worked with us in Hayasdan last summer (2005). Raffi is very involved in this organization (in fact, he is now the president of the student branch) and he and his sister, Anouch, were there to rebuild schools and organize week-long summer camps for rural children. Raffi and others have worked hard to create a new website for the association, which may be found at: http://www.da-connexion.com/ (don't worry, there is an english version and also an armenian one). If you are at all interested (and you should be) in the plight of children, especially rural children, in Hayastan, I would urge to to check out their site, if only to look at the photos.