ARI goes Lebanon - Empowering Children in Armenian Orphanage

 ARI e. V. started this year a cooperation with the orphanage "Bird's Nest Armenian Orphanage". Our goal: We want to collect donations to help equip the orphanage.

For over 100 years, Bird's Nest Armenian Orphanage in Byblos (Lebanon) has been the home to thousands of children, providing them with education and after-school activities. The orphanage was created as a result of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in which many children lost their parents.

To this day, children between the ages of six months and 17 years are accepted there. We want to support the incredibly important work of this orphanage and thereby empower the children living there. The facility is faced with many shortcomings: Poor and sometimes non-existent equipment in the common rooms, too few school materials, clothes, shoes and toys. Such supply gaps make it difficult for the children to seize their future opportunities and lead a carefree life. We would like to change this through our cooperation and are collecting donations for this reason!

We will also be on site for about two weeks at the end of September to ensure that the donations reach the orphans. The travel costs are NOT financed by your donations, but by ARI's funds.

 

Lebanon has long been outstanding as one of the countries in the Middle East that is inhabited by many different ethnic and religious minorities that have been granted quite some political freedom. This is one of the reasons why the Armenian people has built a strong community there over the last hundred years. According to estimates, around 156,000 Armenians live in Lebanon. Due to the war in Syria, which has forced many people of Armenian origin to flee, the accurate number is probably significantly higher. Lebanon is also one of the few countries where the Armenian community has established numerous professional organizations and institutions such as orphanages, childcare centers and schools.

However, these institutions have suffered profoundly from the economic and political crises in Lebanon. This has left them in an isolated state, forgotten and unaffected by international aid projects. As a non-profit association that works for the Armenian youth, we see it as our task to show the people living there that we have not forgotten them.