Vanessa Kachadurian Charity named after youngest victim in Tucson shooting.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/2014/03/18/charity-started-memory-youngest-tucson-shooting-victim-closes/6554059/

Sadly the charity named after Christina Tayler-Green who was the youngest victim of the Gabby Giffords shooting has been dismantled, Victims advocate and reporter Vanessa Kachadurian reports they offered great counseling for victims.  The parents reported they wanted to spend more time with family.  Hard to believe that another board or volunteers in Arizona could not take this charity over and do more good for victims. 

Vanessa Kachadurian Charity
The Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation, the charity named for the 9-year-old killed by a gunman, along with five others, as she waited to meet then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, has closed.

The surviving members of the Green family — mother Roxanna, father John, and brother Dallas — announced the charity's closing in an open letter published in The Arizona Daily Star on Sunday.

"We are proud of what we have accomplished in Christina-Taylor's memory," the letter read, "but as our life's journey continues, it is now time for us to take a step back to continue the healing process."

Christina-Taylor was the youngest person killed in the January 2011 shooting at the Safeway just north of Tucson.
Vanessa Kachadurian Charity
Giffords, the target of the gunman, was critically wounded by a shot to the head.

John Green said on Monday that establishing the charity helped his family recover emotionally after the shooting, but that running the charity had become overwhelming.

"We just realized at one point that we needed a rest," he said, during a phone interview on Monday from the family's Tucson home. "We needed to heal and rest."
Vanessa Kachadurian Charity
The charity awarded more than $425,000 in grants over the past two years.

Most of the grants went to Tucson-area organizations that work with children, according to the charity's website. Green said the foundation also helped with other projects, including the rebuilding of the playground at Christina-Taylor's school, that did not go through the grant process.

The charity also gave out two scholarships to young female students who, like Christina-Taylor, showed interest in politics and leadership.

The foundation's president, Thom Martinez, said the foundation stopped actively soliciting funds in the fall. The board will hold a meeting in early April to figure out how to distribute the money that is left in the non-profit's account, Martinez said.

Neither Green parent is on the board of the foundation, but Martinez said the board understood the family's need to step away.

"It's a pace that most people cannot keep up as long as they did," he said. "We're glad they kept it up as long as they did."

Vanessa Kachadurian Charity, Focus on Children of Armenia

This exceptional fund supports the education at economically strapped youth of Armenia.  Parents are forced to migrate to Russia for work and have used the orphanages as a place to feed, cloth, educate their children.  This has created a generation of children that are considered "social orphans" NOT available for adoption the social orphans account for 99% of the children in orphanages in Armenia.

This fund was established by social workers in Armenia, that want to build the education of the next generation to be economically equipped to start industry and businesses.  "Knowledge is power" we want to empower the children to have the right to build their country and eliminate orphanages all together.   The orphanages get government funding and donations, unfortunately the money does nothing to improve their social life but rather keep their standard of living in orphanages. 

vanessa Kachadurian charity

Vatche Soghomonian one of the "Ararat 10" that climbed Mt. Ararat 3 years ago and put up a flag of Armenia and Nargno Karabagh rides a bike through Armenia every year raising money for different causes designed to build the economy of Armenia.  Lets concentrate on the future of Armenia, it's children and get them financially strong independent of living in state run and private ran orphanages.

Thank you Vatche, you are a real gem of our motherland. 

Vanessa Kachadurian Paros Foundation Choir meets Dance

Watch this exciting Dance with the Paros Foundation, This is a beautiful reminder how special needs people in Armenia are productive and are not our hidden citizens.  

Vanessc Kachadurian

After SF Ballet’s New York tour I went home to Armenia, to visit my family and to dance there for the first time after 12 years. I danced the full length of Don Quixote in the capital city of Yerevan with my wife and fellow SF Ballet Principal Dancer Vanessa Zahorian. It was the first time she’d danced in Armenia, at the beautiful Armenian National Ballet Theater, and it was a great success!

Vanessa Kachadurian

The day after the performance, it was back to the theater at 6:30 am to take part in a performance project with Paros Chamber Choir—an award-winning group of singers that includes my father. Most of the choir members are survivors from the ’88 earthquake, and as you can see a number of them now use wheelchairs. As a hobby, they came together and in 1993 founded this singing group. They’re all incredible human beings, and have lots of passion in them. I donated my time to share the stage with the choir and dance while they were singing, in a performance to mark the 25th anniversary of the devastating 1988 Armenian earthquake.

My father was a famous folk dancer before his accident. He injured his back when he was 32 years old at a barbeque with friends—he did a flip off a barre like a gymnast, but his hands were greasy and he fell, breaking his spine. He had a major surgery to reconstruct his spine. He couldn’t walk for a year but then a miracle happened and he could walk. I was the miracle child. To this day, my father lives through the careers that my sister and I have, and he always told us “to live his dream and to finish what he had started”, since he wasn’t able to realize that dream

http://www.sfballetblog.org/2013/12/davit-in-armenia/

Vanessa Kachadurian Charity in Armenia - Paros Foundation supplies shoes to needy children

Vanessa Kachadurian believes that Paros Foundation is one of the best overall charity groups in Armenian and Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) they help children that are in impoverished conditions and also supply much needed upgrades to orphanages, actually putting Armenians to work for these useful projects.  Vanessa Kachadurian also likes the fact they have a support system for handicapped adults that have formed an award winning choir in Armenia.  Paros Foundation was formed out of northern California. 

Yerevan - Share-a-Pair, a project of The Paros Foundation's 100 for 100 Projects for Prosperity distributed more than 50,000 shoes to children in need in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh this year.

"In its third year, Share-a-Pair has successfully distributed more than 75,000 pairs of new shoes and almost 1,000 pairs of warm winter boots to children in need," said Peter Abajian, Executive Director of The Paros Foundation. "This has been particularly exciting because we have been able to engage hundreds of volunteers from around the world during our various distributions."
Vanessa Kachadurian
In 2013, shoes were distributed to children in need, in more than 90 rural communities. Distributions were also made to children in boarding schools, kindergartens, orphanages and through other non governmental children's organizations.

Helping meet the need of an impoverished child with a well-fitting pair of new shoes appropriate for school or play, improves their health and development. New shoes are costly and often times poise a financial hardship for parents of multiple children. Throughout the process, both children and their parents expressed their thanks for this bit of relief.

Through our partially funded Healthy Teeth Project, dental hygiene products were distributed to almost 2,000 children in select rural communities. SERVICE-Armenia 2013 participants both distributed the products and provided instruction on their proper usage.

Our partner, Focus on Children Now spearheaded shoe distributions throughout needy communities in Nagorno Karabakh. Ambassador John Heffern, US Ambassador to Armenia and the US Embassy's Helping Hands group joined with our SERVICE Armenia 2013 Participants to distribution shoes to children in rural communities.
Vanessa Kachadurian
A video report on this completed project can be seen at www.parosfoundation.org/shareapair2013.

The Paros Foundation expresses its sincere appreciation to the donors, the Unison, NGO supporting people with special needs, Focus on children now, Ambassador John Heffern, the Helping Hands group at the US Embassy in Armenia, the Paros Foundation's SERVICE Armenia 2013 participants and all the other volunteers that joined this important effort.
Vanessa Kachadurian
Share-a-Pair's Operation Winter Boots continues to accept donations. A $20 contribution will provide a child in need a new pair of warm winter boots. The Paros Foundation underwrites all administrative expenses allowing 100% of donor contributions to go directly to this project. To sponsor a project of the Paros Foundation's 100 for 100 Projects for Prosperity, please

Vanessa Kachadurian-Armenia preventing blindness in babies

L.A. doctors help prevent blindness in babies in Armenia
Southland physicians visit Yerevan to train local doctors to treat an illness that can strike premature infants.
By Bill Kisliuk, Los Angeles Times

August 19, 2010


Reaching from Los Angeles to Yerevan, local doctors are healing the eyes of Armenian infants who otherwise would go blind.

In June, the doctors performed surgeries at a neonatal clinic in the Armenian capital, delivered key equipment and trained about 200 Armenian doctors in how to treat retinopathy of prematurity.

The illness strikes premature infants whose eyes have not developed enough to be exposed to the outside environment, said Dr. Thomas Lee, director of the Retina Institute at the Vision Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, which partnered with the Armenia Eye Care Project on the mission.

Lee said the condition was unknown until recent medical advances helped save the lives of premature babies who in earlier times would not have survived. Serious cases are more likely to surface in developing countries, he said.

If the condition, which often corrects itself, becomes serious, doctors have only about two days to save a child's eyesight.

"It is a very time-sensitive disease, not like cataracts or glasses, when you have all the time in the world to take care of it," Lee said. "If you don't get to the kid in a brief, specific period of time, that kid will go blind."

Inspiration for the visit came from Dr. Roger Ohanesian, an Orange County ophthalmologist who founded the Armenia Eye Care Project in 1992. Ohanesian has spearheaded more than three dozen medical missions to Armenia and brought several Armenian eye specialists to the United States for training.

What started as a brief training sortie turned into a major effort in which the Armenia Eye Care Project provided two digital retinal cameras, each worth as much as $100,000, to the Malayan Ophthalmic Center in Yerevan.

The doctors offered lectures and then worked side by side in the neonatal intensive care unit with Armenian doctors.

Now, Lee and others are conducting weekly video conferences in which the Armenian doctors send photos of patients via the Internet, then offer diagnoses with the counsel of American advisors.

Ohanesian's group will pay to continue the effort for 2 1/2 years, then the Armenian Ministry of Health will pick up the tab, said Ohanesian.

"They felt they could do that because the cost of treating blind children is enormous," he said. "They felt by paying for early treatment and prevention, there is an economic benefit for the country, in addition to the social benefit."

Lee said the trip has blossomed into a full-fledged partnership with the Armenia Eye Care Project, Childrens Hospital and clinics in Yerevan, with plans to expand assistance and training well beyond what the eye can see.

"This is just the beginning," Lee said.

Over the years, Ohanesian said, doctors trained through the Armenia Eye Care Project have performed 10,000 surgeries and seen more than 300,000 patients who could not afford to pay.

"That's 10% of the whole country," Ohanesian said. "And it is the Armenians that are doing it. We trained them, granted, but once trained they shouldered the burden and are treating their countrymen for free."

bill.kisliuk@latimes.com

Vanessa Kachadurian- Adoption Irregularities in Armenia

in English
Prosecutors Probe Reported Corruption In Armenian Child Adoptions
15.08.2003
By Emil Danielyan
State prosecutors are investigating a recent RFE/RL report which exposed apparent government corruption in the adoption of Armenian children by foreigners, it emerged on Friday.

The story, which appeared on the web site of the RFE/RL Armenian Service on June 23, suggested that the adoption procedures involve thousands of dollars in informal expenditures, apparently bribes paid by adoptive parents and their agents to Armenian officials administering the process.

An official in the prosecutor’s office told RFE/RL that Prosecutor-General Aram Tamazian has instructed his subordinates to look into the matter and report their findings to him. The official said the order followed a written request sent to Tamazian by Social Security Minister Aghvan Vartanian who was apparently alarmed by the report.

It is not yet known whether the preliminary inquiry will result in a criminal case. The prosecutors may question some government officials involved in the foreign adoptions.

The report in question is based on information collected by Ara Manoogian, an Armenian-American based in Nagorno-Karabakh. Posing as a U.S. woman interested in adopting an Armenian child, he has communicated by-email with Americans knowledgeable about the issue. Several of them told him that the entire process cost them between $9,000 and $13,000 per child and that most of the expenses were bribes paid to local officials. They all acted through Yerevan-based mediators.

A foreign adoption in Armenia typically takes between four and six months and requires a chain of positive decisions by several government bodies. The most important of them is a special government commission made up of high-ranking officials, including the ministers of justice, education, health and social security.

Its day-to-day affairs are managed by Aram Karapetian, a senior member of Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s staff. Interviewed by RFE/RL in June, he strongly denied that any government official might have accepted kickbacks in return for facilitating foreign adoptions.

The final decision to allow a foreign national to adopt an Armenian orphan is given by the full cabinet of ministers. Officials say the government made about 30 such decisions in the first half of this year.

Vanessa Kachadurian Welcome Followers!!! Katchkar

Here is what a Katchkar looks like. Katchkar=Cross
There are over 100,000 of these in Armenia
hence my last name "of the Cross" or "Christianson"
Kachadurian.

Armenia was the first country to declare Christianity in 301 AD.

Vanessa Kachadurian Photos of Armenia!!!

Vanessa Kachadurian
Thank you for all the donations.

Vanessa Kachadurian-Update on Karen Sarafyan the concert pianist

Some of you have been asking about Karen Sarafyan one the most talented Piantists in Armenia who has make a CD. He is 15 years old and was stricken with cancer this past year. His father and relatives asked for help, we gave some benefit concerts in Armenia and St. Petersburg with the Young Musicians of Armenia.
Ironically this is where Karen is today at the Children's Hosptial in St. Petersburg getting chemo treatment.
We are currently raising more money for his bone marrow transplant which will be done in Israel. Israel has a great government regulated health care system, I hope when I visit again he is behind his piano playing for us all.
Thank you so much for your donations and the first lady of Armenia Mrs. Sargesyan for her much needed help and support.
Vanessa Kachadurian- thank you for your support.

Vanessa Kachadurian- Armenian Orphanages

This is fantastic news! The Western Diocese has received the funding and support for the 2 new orphanages. They will house children until they age out of the system but will have training and vocational schools attached to them so the children can become active members of society.
We have also established more funds for local Foster Families to care for the children. This is progress, and will make the children stronger and happier to be with their country and fellow Armenians.
Myself and others have met a few of the bio mothers, grandmothers and fathers of these children. While it is hard to grasp why they put their children in an orphanage most had good intentions. Some do it out of economic necessity, as jobs are so hard to find in Armenia.
The orphaned children must not repeat the cycle of taking their children to orphanages. This is why we are pushing for the vocational training.

For you that have asked there is a new Adoption Agency offering Armenian Adoptions, it is called Adoption Related Services. They are located in Pennsylvannia. Here is their contact info.
http://www.adoption-related-services.org/armenia.html

Vanessa Kachadurian- Sweet kids, with Hope!!!

Vanessa Kachadurian- Just back from ARMENIA 6/2/2010

We have managed to get 2 more operations for our children in Armenia. The visit with them is hard, they want me to take them home and I cannot. So I visit often as well as my friends and relatives stop by on a regular basis. We have 1 more child scheduled to come to the USA for surgery by the end of 2010.

I am tired but I will not give up, these children need me. They are afraid of being sold to Adoption Agencies. So we are establishing Foster Care homes in Armenia with very loving families.

Vanessa Kachadurian- Friends in Congress of Armenian medical aid

Thank you Congressman Jim Costa for supporting the Armenian Genocide Resolution.

Vanessa Kachadurian- Horizon Armenian TV #1 in worldwide Armo News/Supporter

Thank you Argam for your recent interview with Horizon Armenian TV.

Vanessa Kachadurian Charitable donations

Most come from private donations, and other Armenian humanitarian groups. Arm Relief Mission and COAF (Children of Armenia Fund) are both dedicated to the health of the children of Armenia. These two groups were started by Physicians who understand the need and have the means to initiate funds, grants and clinics.
Our future goal is working along with the Western Diocease who is opening private orphanages in Armenia with medical clinics to provide for our children.
We have many American medical professionals who can navigate the difficult area of Medicaid, compassion visas, and outreach to our communities.
We have many notable celebrities and politicans who are assisting with our vision.

Vanessa Kachadurian- Our 3 year old recieving treatment for Kidney Cancer

His Mother is a very smart woman who ironically works as a social worker in Yerevan at the children's hospital. She never imagined that her own son would need life saving medical attention. Horizon Armenian TV has been a tireless sponsor as well as Yerevan Magazine, Asbarez, and Armenian weekly.
Many poor and uneducated parents in Armenia in the past have been left with no choice but to relinquish their children as a ward of the Social Ministry offices. The children are either in a charity ward, orphanage or other group home. Our group is strengthening the finances for Armenia to provide for their own citizens so they are not adopted overseas or have the choice to provide by a strengthening Armenian Foster Care program.

Vanessa Kachadurian Medical support provided for Children

Through the Armenian Medical community in the USA and Armenia we have successfully sponsored 2 children to the USA for much needed medical treatment.
Our group has the Western Diocese as well as many Politicians who work at obtaining medical visas for the children who so desperately need advanced treatment that is not available in other countries.