Armenian Orphans-Hye Helping Hands

Thank you Hye Helping Hands http://www.HyeHelpingHands.com

Vanessa Kachadurian- Famous Armenian Italians

Love to Italia!
Thank you for taking good care of our children.
Hope to see some of you soon, thanks for reaching out!!!

Vanessa Kachadurian, interest from Italy

The late Pope John Paul II, was ill but made sure the Armenian patron Saint Gregory was placed in the Vatican.


24 hour to this traffic increased to Italy, for the obvious reasons the Italians are adopting most of our children in Armenia. Karine's friends were adopted by Italians as they are preferred because of our ancient ties, San Lazaro Island off of Venice houses an ancient Armenian Monastry. and Roman Empire influence. The Vatican has a section for the Armenians with a huge statue erected of St. Gregory the Illuminator. The Italians are family centered as the Armenians are, if we cannot find an Armenian home for our children the next best is the Italians!!!!
Please refer to your embassy they can negiotiate for you and take a trip to Armenia.
The funniest is watching Italian Armenians talk in Hayren, fast and throwing the hands around. Http://www.ArmenianAdoptionAdventure.blogspot.com

Italy 7


United States 2

Vanessa Kachadurian-Update on Narek

We just got back from Little Armenia, and I am happy to report that Narek has made a remarkable improvement since his last chemo treatment in September 2010. Here is a photo from December 2009, and the next was yesterday 11/12/2010.






I am so happy to see my baby Narek doing much better, his face was glowing with happiness and you could see his soul twinkling in his eyes. Narek's face was filled out and you could actually see his dimples when he smiled and laughed. We played catch, and talked about his dad who was just out here from Armenia on a Vistor's Visa. He misses his older brother who was not able to visit. But I have a special friend that will work on this by Christmas.

He was very happy, his cheeks had color and the weight is back on. Narek's prognosis is hopeful, much more than when he arrived from Armenia. 11 months - God works in mysterious ways. Thank you to everyone that helped out. Especially Horizon Armenian TV, in 30 days we had over 8,000 Facebook warriors for Narek.
Narek and I enjoyed playing on the key board I brought him and watching him on his quad.

Vanessa Kachadurian- What the Orphanages always need.

Those of you that ask "What do the orphanages need" lice is a continual problem. One child gets it - everyone gets it. They don't bath every day, and the eggs are on the bedding, couches and rugs. I found out that one home was using pesticides to spray on their heads, we cannot believe how toxic that is for the children. Rid or Nix is good, it is available in Armenia but more readly available in the USA. Thank you to the Asadourian family for purchasing a whole case. It will go to good use!!

Vanessa Kachadurian-Armenian Orphanage memorial for Antoura

Many of the children died at this Turkish ran orphanage after the genocide. These children were Turkified and given Islamic names. Some were adopted by Moslems.
Aintoura, Lebanon - It has been over five years since Maurice Missak Kelechian discovered the location of a Genocide-era Armenian orphanage at St. Joseph Aintoura French College in Lebanon.

On September 22, through support from KOHAR Symphony Orchestra & Choir and Harout Khatchadourian, a khachkar (Armenian Stone-Cross) and a bronze statue in memory of Armenian orphans was inaugurated at the Aintoura College cemetery.

Remarks by Mr. Kelechian at the inauguration he entitled as "My Journey of Love" are below:

"My journey of love started in 2005 with a single photo in Stanley Kerr's book, "Lions of Marach" that showed a group picture of Jemal Pasha with a footnote that read: "Jemal Pasha commander of the Turkish Fourth Army together with Halide Edib, on the steps of French College at Antoura, Lebanon."

My passion for the Armenian modern history had just started to take off and finding a piece of that history in my own backyard was surreal! Little did I know that I was embarking on an incredible untold story.

I jumped into my car eager to identify the location of the orphanage shown in the picture. Antoura, for many Lebanese families, is a beautiful place to take their kids for a drive and some fresh air. They had no idea that soon, it was going to take their breath away!

Apprehensive at first and then excited, I approached the French college. Careful not to disturb what I didn't know, I started taking pictures of the college from afar and as I came closer to the building, my story started to unfold.

The college was established by the Jesuits brotherhood in 1656. Lazarist priesthood took over the college in 1834 and when the WWI broke out, the Ottoman Turks confiscated the college, dismissed all the priests and converted the building into a Turkish orphanage. Between 1915-1918, 1200 young orphans were kept in Antoura of whom 1000 were Armenians and the remaining 200 consisted of Turks and Kurds.

In 1916, Jamal Pasha visited Antoura together with 40 elite Turkish teachers, headed by Halide Edib, the new director of the college; prepared to teach the orphans the "Ottoman Turkish culture"; hence the photo in Kerr's book.

I finally took the courage to enter the college. Pretty soon, I was guided to see the college's archivist, Mr. Sebastian Arhan, who welcomed my curiosity and very gracefully supported my pursuit.

As we started walking around the college trying to trace the location of the photo, an employee of the college, Mr. Doumit Hayfa, told us that in 1993, the remains (bones) of some of the young orphans were found and were collectively buried under an unmarked mass grave next to high ranking Lazarist priests.

In 2006, when my initial findings about the Antoura orphanage were published in Aztak, an Armenian newspaper in Lebanon, I found out that Mr. Karnig Panian, previously the deputy dean of Jemaran high school in Beirut, was one of the survivors of the Antoura orphanage. In 1992, he had published his experiences as an orphan in a two-volume memoir.

I stayed up all night reading the memoirs in owe and disbelief! While the Antoura building looked like an orphanage on the outside, on the inside, the young orphans were going through a systematic Turkification executed through most heinous tactics; changing the Armenian names of the orphans into Turkish names, luring the orphans into believing that the Turkish culture is a better culture than the Armenian, and, gradually, if the orphans spoke, prayed or sung in Armenian, punishing them by Falakha (Hitting of the soles of the feet with iron rods). "The sessions of Falakha usually ended up with bleeding kids sent to the infirmary to be treated for fractured bones."

In Halide Edib's own words: "One felt that these children, whatever happened, would carry something crippled, something mutilated in them."

I was appalled and revolted by the realization that the Genocide did not stop with the killings, the drowning, the burning and the rapes, it rather continued to crawl beyond the deserts, the rivers and the caves; the final frontier of the Genocide aimed at annihilating the memory of what constituted "Armenian culture."

Here, I would like to add that according to the UN definition of Genocide, the 5th point specifically stipulates that "Forcibly transferring children of a group to another group" is an act of Genocide (Article II of the 1951 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide).

From that day on, I was haunted by the souls of these orphans 300 of whom lost their lives between 1915-1918 as a result of abuse, famine and illness. In his memoires, Mr. Panian wrote: "The available hospitals were merely a sleeping hall. There were no skilled doctors to provide the proper medication. The dead orphans, who were buried in a hole and covered with dirt, were attacked, the same night, by the hungry jackals, ripping off the little bodies and scattering their bones all over the place." "The only thought on the orphans' minds was food. In desperation, they would often collect the bones of their dead friends, grind them and use them in soups as food to survive."

Later, when I returned to Antoura and I watched the college through the eyes of a 6 year old Karnig who experienced the pain of abandonment, famine and Turkification and who saw his friends lose their identity and vanish to be forever forgotten. As I sat on the mass grave bewildered, I promised to tell the story of the unsung heroes until they were truly laid in peace.

Towards the end of 1918, Halide Edib asked Dr. Bliss, then the dean of American University of Beirut, to take Antoura under the protection of the American Red Cross.

I expressed my gratitude to the Near East Relief and Red Cross organizations and several official representatives of foreign governments for actively taking part in saving Armenian lives and selflessly caring for over 130,000 Armenian orphans.

Vanessa Kachadurian-Armenia's other Children

Yerevan - They are three and four year olds who excitedly run over to me with ear-to-ear smiles as I arrive at the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR) Children's Center in Yerevan. Their cherubic faces are aglow with the happiness that only children of this age can express unabashedly.

But their joyous greeting belies a darker history of the 38 children at the Center - aged 3 to 18 currently, of possible abuse, abandonment, homelessness, sexual trafficking, or simply parents so poor they cannot afford to raise them. Though the number of children at this Center is very small, it nonetheless exposes a condition that is on the rise due to the severe economic conditions in Armenia.

It was during my recent trip to Armenia that I had the privilege of visiting this amazing institution which is supported by the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR). The buildings are nestled among trees, playground areas, and fragrant flower beds planted and cared for by the children. There is even a sandbox for the more aggressive youngsters to relieve their frustrations, anxieties and fears.

In one building live the younger children, and the teenagers are housed in the second one, both kept in immaculate condition. During my walk-through, a class was taking place with an instructor questioning the older ones about Armenian history. In another room, a therapist was counseling a weeping child. And in a nearby bedroom, two teenagers were quietly discussing personal issues. In the two art rooms, the drawing, painting, and sculpting talents of these youngsters were proudly displayed.

The usual stay for a child at the Center is 30 to 40 days, after which some return to their biological families (65 percent), go into foster care (with funds from FAR and UNICEF ended), or stay with relatives. The last option is either an orphanage, night care, or special educational schools. More than 400 youngsters go through this Center, and find a better life every year.

Change of concept
Started in 1937, the Center was run by the police as a refuge for lost children during the Soviet era. Before 1999, the idea behind this Center was isolation and punishment. In 1999, the Center was given to FAR which undertook a complete reconstruction and renovation. Through the vision of an American philanthropist, Barbara Lorinci, and the influence of FAR Board of Directors member Annette Choolfaian, the concept was changed, and in 2000, FAR hired social workers, psychologists, therapists, creating a new team where the police had a minimal role.

"Most of the children have come from poverty or family difficulties, and have found an organized, devoted family life here," said the energetic and dedicated Director of the FAR Children's Center, Dr. Mira Antonyan who has a PH.D. in Social Work, and has been with the Center since August 2005. "All children have the right to live safely, to enjoy life freely in secure environments."

Before independence, there were 600 children in institutions, Dr. Antonyan continued. By 2002, the figure had escalated to 12,000 due to extreme poverty (over 50 percent of the country), the Karabagh war, and the lack of services. The current era is much more child-focused, but it depends on each situation. Since 2000, more than 6000 traumatized children have been cared for at the Children's Center.

From 1999 to 2004, approximately 2000 children were found begging in the streets, along with their mothers, Dr. Antonyan revealed. The fathers had either been killed in the Karabagh war, were separated, or had gone to Russia seeking work. Some parents were drug users, or had mental illnesses.

And some of the traumatic conditions that these children have been subjected to include behavioral problems, drugs (including using petrol as drugs), child prostitution (a nine-year old boy), sex trafficking (two sisters 13 and 14 years of age), stealing (218 cases), children working in dangerous conditions (40 percent). This is in addition to the 8000 in orphanages, and 800 in day care.

Dedicated attention, support needed
Today, each child receives individual and caring attention, and the premises evoke a feeling of coziness, and warmth. The professional staff of the Center includes social workers, psychologists and nurses who give individual care and support to each child and family.

On an honor roll in the foyer of one of the buildings were listed the benefactors who are supporting the Center, including the names of several Armenian-Americans. Just recently, the Mardigian Family Foundation gave a generous donation to establish the FAR Child Protection Fund. Dr. Antonyan pointed out that the needs of the Center are much higher than the support that is given.

"This is the only such shelter for all of Armenia and Karabagh," continued Dr. Antonyan who pointed out that "there is no social support for these at risk children when they are living with their families. But in these institutions, the state, the diaspora, and charities will support them.

But it has been proven that children who have been in institutions, and therefore do not have a close bond with their families, retain many behavioral, developmental and personality problems, including a lack of social skills, and low self esteem when they reach adulthood.

The Children's Center is for many of these children their only home, and their hope for a more stable future. "Their past is the past and cannot be changed," said Dr. Antonyan. "We are doing our best to make their future as bright and secure as possible."

For more information on the Yerevan Children's Center, or to make a donation, readers can contact the FAR office in New York at (212) 889-5150, or at info@farusa.org