The Telethon

Last year on the 25^th of November a telethon organized in order to raise funds for drinking water and irrigation projects in Karabagh took place in Los Angeles. The project is called “Water is life” and wealthy Armenians from around the world were invited to participate at this telethon. For the first time, thanks to the Armenian Embassy in Bucharest people from Romania could donate money to support this project. The event was promoted by the Romanian mass-media, and also by our magazine and by the Archdiocese of the Armenian Church in Romania. Some of our compatriots in the United States told us that they were impressed to see written on their TVs, when the telethon was aired, the word Romania and the names of the donors. It may seem trivial to others but to us it means something. Taking into account the crisis we are going through this gesture is not only humanitarian but also patriotic. I remember that in 1988, when Armenia was hit by a devastating earthquake, Armenians in Romania mobilized and raised the money for aid even if they had problems. It was, as now, a gesture through which we showed that we are Armenians and we do not forget our nation. Coming back to our subject I have to mention here Mr. Garo Haciaturian, who is the representative of The Armenia Fund in Romania and who contributed in his way to mobilize the community. A year ago the same Mr. Garo was involved in raising funds to buy computers for a school in Yerevan. The conclusion is that although everyone has their problems, although we aren’t a wealthy community, as other communities in the Diaspora are, we still wanted to be there for the Armenians in the motherland and to contribute, from the little we have, to a prosperous country without which we wouldn’t exist.

Posted by MStepan on Jan 19 2011. Filed under Armenia / Diaspora, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry