Tithe report

Dear partners,  

We would like to thank you again for your committed partnership. Our partner families greatly benefitted from your support and spent their winter in warm homes.  In this issue we would like to present you how the tithe partnership strengthens Habitat for Humanity Armenia to support more families in housing need and achieve a significant impact in the country. 

Thank you

Dear partners at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati, Morris Habitat for Humanity, Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity, Bergen County Habitat for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, Paterson Habitat for Humanity,  Delaware County Habitat for Humanity,  Habitat for Humanity of Michigan, Tri-Cities Area Habitat for Humanity, Greater Mount Airy Area Habitat for Humanity,  Bergen Co United Way Charitable Flex Fund, Bruce Ballard and Treasurer and Armenian Church Endowment Fund Inc., Ara & Edma Dumanian Foundation, Emily Del Greco, Onnik Keshishian and Kristine Keshishian, 

On behalf of our partner families we would like to thank you for your tithes and donations of total $90,280.11, received between January to June, 2016: 

Habitat for Humanity affiliates

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Cincinnati - $24,000, 10 families served, 
Morris HFH-$21,830, 9 families served, 
Greater Green Bay HFH- $11,983.55, 5 families served, 
Bergen County HFH-$7,000, 3 families served, 

HFH of  St. Vrain Valley -$6,966.81, 3 families served, 
Paterson HFH-$5,000, 2 families served, 
Delaware HFH-$4,000, 2 families served,
HFH of Michigan-$2,250.5, 1 family served, 
Tri-Cities HFH - $1,200, 1 family served, 

GreaterMount Airy Area HFH - $703.8, 1 family served 

Foundations and Charities: 

Bergen Co United Way Charitable Flex Fund-$1,000, 1 family served
Bruce Ballard and Treasurer and Armenian Church Ednowment Fund Inc.-$845.45, 1 family served

Ara & Edma Dumanian Foundation-$500, 1 family served

Individual donors:

Emily Del Greco - $2,500, 1 family served 
Onnik Keshishian and Kristine Keshishian -$500, 1 family served, 

Thanks to your support, we were enabled to serve 42 more families improved their living conditions in the regions of Gegharkunik and Vayts Dzor with the Housing Microfinance Project. 

Please see below stories of some families that benefitted from your tithes and donations:

Our goal is to continue to make a difference in the lives of the people. Your support is a great motivation for us and gives us courage and energy to move towards our goal of building better future for families living in substandard housing conditions. 

Thank you again for your partnership and dedication to Habitat for Humanity Armenia's mission. 

Tigran Davtya’s family

Galya, 48 lives at home with her husband, Sarkis, 51, three sons, Hamlet, 28, Tigran, 27, Shahen, 25, and Tigran’s wife Anna, 27, and Anna’s children, Sarkis, 4, and Victoria, 10 months in the village of Getahovit on the outskirts of Ijevan, Armenia. Eight persons in all.

Galya looks after the family house, including maintaining a small-holding of multiple vegetables, fruit trees, 3 cows, an Armenian buffalo, and numerous chickens. Her husband Sarkis is a janitor at a local school. Tigran works at the hydro power station as a controller, Hamlet has a business as a DJ for parties and weddings, whilst Shahen is a taxi driver. Anna looks after her small children.

‘It was time for the family to have more accommodation, now that Tigran has a wife and two children’, said Galya. ‘It was just too crowded in our present house’, she continued.

With the help of a low-cost loan from Habitat from Humanity, the roof of the new home was provided. The new home is on a plot not far from the family house. In July, a Global Village a team from Habitat arrived to help them with plastering and levelling the walls.  The young family hopes to be in their new home before the end of the year. 

Davit Arakelyan’s family

My father, Mher, has lived in this house since he built it with his own hands in 1970.  Now both he, my mother, Areknas, live here with myself, Davit, and my wife, Lucine.  Also living here are Lucine and my three children, Arsen, 13; Meri, 11; and Hovannes, who is about 2 years old.  My father’s parents also used to live with us but are no longer here.  So now there are seven people living in our home.  The house does provide us with shelter since its construction but it is getting old and needs to have some much needed maintenance performed to ensure our house will be here for my grandchildren.

I am a construction worker but due to jobsite accident, I am unable to continue working to provide a steady income for my family.  Without steady income then it is impossible for me to buy materials or hire laborers to do any work on the house.  So any maintenance other than little things tends not to get accomplished.   We did save enough money over a very long time to be able to renovate our kitchen but the rest of the home remains old and lacking.  We are able to get some money from selling excess fruits and vegetables we grow which are mainly potatoes and garlic.  We also have a few cows, pigs, sheep and chickens for meat and eggs.  Any excess is sold for additional income.  But not of these are consistent nor year round.

While talking to the bank about obtaining a micro-finance loan, they told us about Habitat for Humanity Armenia located in Yerevan.  A Global Village team form the United States worked hand in hand with  the family and helped them complete one room. 

Geghanush Asatryan’s family

My husband, Mantin, and I, Geghanush, bought this house about four years ago.  Martin is in Russia working construction to get our main source of income.  We needed a house that was closer to places such as the market.  That is why we bought this particular house.  We have been able to do some things ourselves but it takes us a long time to even come close to finishing them.  We added a kitchen because there was none when we moved into this place.  Because our son, Karen, who is a contract soldier for the Armenian Army, lives here with his wife, Tatev, we needed more room because of their growing family.  Our grandchildren, Martick, who is 3 years old and Narek, who is almost 2 also live with us.  We added a room but have been unable to complete it as of yet.  We have been able to add a gate at the road to prevent my grandchildren from wandering off.  We have done some plastering around the house but it is in dire need of a new roof.  We have been unsure how we will complete that particular project.  The biggest project we need to complete is the addition of a bathroom.  We have no bathroom at all.  We use our front porch as a bathroom and hope that someday we will be able to construct one.

When a neighbor told me about Habitat for Humanity Armenia, I could barely contain myself.  I told Martin the next time he called and he agreed that we should try to get them to team with us to help us improve our home.  With their help we could accomplish a project or two that would normally take us several years to complete, if we are able to complete it at all.  I am praying that we will be selected for an international team visit.

Samvel Ghazaryan’s family

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union I bought a house for my growing family to live in.  Then came the collapse which brought very tough times for everyone in all the former Soviet republics, especially for us in Armenia.  My name is, Samvel, and with my wife, Margush, and our sons we had to sell our nice house and buy something cheaper.  Unfortunately our cheaper home also came with serious maintenance issues that I have had extreme trouble trying to repair.  With all the maintenance left to accomplish I am unable to even think about upgrading anything in our home.  We figured that with two sons we would be able to accomplish much more but then came the war and we lost our oldest son in Artsakh.  It was a very dark time and to this day we think about him every day.  He is missed by everyone!!

Both my wife and I are pensioners which is absolutely not enough to make all the repairs on this house or allow improvements.  So I try to get extra income by working as a guard.  With the extra income it still takes a very long time before we are able to undertake any projects.  It just takes too long.  We found through our bank that microfinancing was possible and also an organization named, Habitat for Humanity Armenia, would possibly team with us to help us perform the labor on our home.  To have a team from other parts of the world is quite exciting for us and to think they are willing to come here to help us complete our upgrades is a dream come true.

Zarzand Saneyan’s family

We started building our house in the 1980’s with all work being accomplished by myself at first and then with the help of my son as he got older.  Today there are four of us living in the house which includes me, Zarzand, my wife, Anik, our son, Gevond, and our daughter, Serine.  Although our home was perfectly fine when we built it, it has slowly become smaller because of our children.  Now when our children marry and have children, it will be too small for all of us.  We would like to do some renovations to make things better.  Even with two incomes money is tight for us to do much at any one time.  So our projects are small and are done over a very long period of time.  Our income includes what I make as a tractor driver for the city and money our son brings home from his construction job in Russia.  His long absences in Russia make it difficult to make a lot of progress on any project that we start.  I am not as active as I used to be and his help makes things much easier to accomplish.

A couple of our friends told us about a microfinancing program that is possible through the bank.  While talking to the bank employees about the program, they told us about effort between them and an organization called Habitat for Humanity Armenia.  This was definitely a gift from God to get their assistance to complete our home.