One of the projects CNEWA is helping to support in Armenia is the Nadine Basmajian Day Care Center for the elderly in Gyumri. We reported on the center a few years ago in ONE:
At the Nadine Basmajian Center, 35 elderly people currently find company and sympathy as they spend their days there; some 200 seniors have benefited since the [Armenian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception] launched the center.
The most energetic participant, Hamazasp Hakobian, 85, divides his life into three phases: orphanage, the end of World War II and the earthquake.
“I overcame the postwar famine, but the earthquake destroyed everything,” he says of a calamity that killed his wife, leaving him to rear his three teenagers alone. Now he is alone again.
“They all have left the country, looking for sources of income and means of survival,” he says of his children. “We are here in this center so we don’t lose our minds with loneliness, hunger and cold. We couldn’t bear to be away for even a day,” he says, with a kindly look to his friends.
Now, the center has sent us a video, chronicling the day-to-day life of some of these “new orphans” being cared for by the sisters. See for yourself, in the video above, what a wonderful difference it is making in their lives. Thanks to our generous donors for helping to bring light and life to this corner of Armenia!