ARS raises $100,000 in donations for Syrian Armenian Schools

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Central Executive Board of the Armenian Relief Society, Inc. announced that $100,000 in pledged donations have been received from its entities around the world to benefit its “Fund for Assistance to Syrian-Armenian Schools.”

The first installment of these donations will be transferred to the Armenian Relief Cross of Syria in the next few days with the balance to follow later, Asbarez reported.

ARS, Inc. Chairperson Vicky Marashlian stated, “The ARS, Inc. was the first organization to launch a pan-Armenian fundraising effort to support the Syrian-Armenian community and we established the “Fund for Assistance to Syrian-Armenian Schools”.

It was announced that all proceeds will be allocated to cover the tuitions of students. Despite the international financial crisis and its effects on numerous countries with Armenian communities, ARS members spared no effort and raised sizeable donations for this fund. On this occasion and on behald of the ARS, Inc. Central Executive Board, I would like to thank all ARS members, executives and ARS supporters, who headed the ARS call and participated in this fundraiser.”

The disbursement of donations collected through this pan-Armenian effort will be supervised by the Armenian Relief Cross of Syria in consultation with ARS, Inc. Central Executive Board and in cooperation with the Armenian Apostolic, Catholic, and Evangelical churches.

“Questions were raised on more than one occasion on why a fund for assistance to schools, when their re-opening is in doubt and when the Armenian community in Syria is in dire need of socio-economic assistance. The ARS, Inc. Central Executive Board is aware that preparations are underway to re-open the schools, albeit with some delays and arrangements are being discussed to conform to the realities on the ground. On the other hand, by funding the schools, the ARS, Inc. is serving two goals, to alleviate the financial burden to be faced by parents and, at the same time, to support the schools because without that financial support schools will have difficulty in securing their normal operation,” said ARS, Inc. CEB Vice-chairperson Nairy Shahinian.

Considering that a pan-Armenian effort to assist the Syrian-Armenian community was recently launched, bringing together many Armenian religious and secular organizations and institutions, the ARS will continue its effort to assist the Syrian-Armenian community through that effort.