SOS Children’s Villages has opened its second village in Armenia. On July 4th SOS was proud to open the village in Idjevan, the capital of the province Tavush.

Armenia is already home to one SOS village in Kotayk but with widespread poverty and annual inflation increases taxing people, the need is great in this part of the world.

This location has 14 family homes where 90 orphaned or abandoned children will live with other children of all ages and an SOS ‘Mother’. This woman acts as the head of the household, providing emotional support as well as meals and everyday care for the children. The children attend local schools and grow up in a secure environment.

There are already Family Strengthening Programmes and Education Initiatives in place in Idjevan. There are also several other projects within the country, such as an SOS Children’s Village in the Kotayk province, an SOS Nursery  in Kotayk, one SOS Youth Facility in Yerevan, two family strengthening programmes in Yerevan and Gyumri and three school quality development programmes in Kotayk and Yerevan.

CELEBRATION

The ceremony was attended by many Armenian officials and high-level representatives of SOS Children’s Villages International including Mr Helmut Kutin, and the speaker of the Armenian national assembly, Mr Hovik Abrahamyan who officially opened the village. The audience was populated by many well-known Armenian celebrities and loyal supporters.

The ceremony culminated with Mr Armen Ghularyan, the governor of the Tavush province, heartily thanking SOS Children’s Villages for setting up programmes in the province and handed over ownership for the plot of the village to SOS Children’s Villages Armenia. Mr Hans-Johann Schmidt, the Ambassador of Germany to Armenia wished everyone great success and express thanks for those involved in the construction.

Mr Helmut Kutin was proclaimed honorary citizen of Idjevan and was awarded the Medal of Honour of the Armenian national assembly. “…I dare to invite His Excellency the Speaker and all the members of the parliament to hold one session on children’s rights here in the village in Idjevan,” said Mr Kutin in his speech.

The little villagers had their own part as well through a performance in which they built a house of children’s rights. ”Each stone presents one right. This, for example, is the right to a home. This one the right to education. The roof presents our responsibilities for each right, like responsibility to study, to wash our hands, to go to the dentist, to do homework,” explained 13-year-old Nora, one of the first children who found a loving home in the SOS Children’s Village Idjevan.