Genocide survivor son donates $200,000 to Fresno family center

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Fresno Family Counseling Center at Fresno State, U.S., received a gift of $200,000 from alumnus and retired dentist Dr. Harry Moordigian to help expand mental health service in the Central Valley, Fresno Business Journal reported.

The center, ran by Fresno State's Kremen School of Education and Human Development, will use the gift to expand mental health counseling programs that target the Hmong community in partnership with Fresno community benefit organization Stone Soup.

Some of the money will also go toward reinstating the "Placticas" program, which provides mental health outreach at food distributions in rural Fresno and Madera counties.

Moordigian, 75, has been supporting Fresno State since the 1970s when he joined the Bulldog Foundation.

In 2007, for instance, he honored this memory of his late parents Harry and Nevart Moordigian by establishing an endowment to support of the Department of Viticulture and Enology. The scholarship now stands at nearly $250,000.

He also donated to the Armenian Studies Department and athletics program in 1993.

His latest gift stems from a letter he discovered three years ago written by his mother, who had likely suffered from depression after escaping the Armenian Genocide that took his father's life.

Private support like Moordigian's is deemed critical for the Fresno Family Counseling Center, which relies on Fresno State faculty and graduate students to provide clinical help for those in need of marriage, family and child counseling.

During the 2013-2014 academic year, the center held about 10,000 sessions for clients, many of whom cannot afford the high cost of treatment elsewhere.