My sponsor will be my friend!
Varduhi Poghossyan, 10, loves to sing. She dreams of going to music school and becoming a famous singer. “I want to go on stage and sing a song that touches everyone’s heart”, says Varduhi.
Varduhi lives with her seven-member family in Landjaghbyur Village in Gavar Region, Armenia.Life is hard in Landjaghbyur; for adults the unemployment and lack of any income create real hardships. For children - it is the lack of extra-curricular activities, dilapidated school and no playground. But for all the villagers of Landjaghbyur, the most severe hardship is the cold winter.
Varduhi’s father Karen Poghossyan, 32, had to leave for Yerevan, located some 120km from Gavar Region in search of a job to be able to provide for the family. “The children do not see their father for weeks at a time, but there is no way out; our whole family lives on his earnings”, shares Varduhi’s mother Anahit Harutyunyan, 30.
Karen is a construction worker in Yerevan and has to spend most of the year in the capital. “He sends us some 15,000-20,000 Armenian drams (US$50- 65) each month so that we all - my three children and my parents-in-law – can make ends meet”, says Anahit.
These 15,000 drams are just enough to buy bread for the family “These 15,000 drams are just enough to buy bread for the family”, says Anahit.
Anahit is concerned about the future of her children. “With the money we earn today, we will never be able to give our children a proper education”, she fears.
“Varduhi is an excellent student at school and it is such a pity that everything she learns will be lost because we do not have money for her education”, says Anahit.
...it is such a pity that everything she learns will be lost because we do not have money for her education Varduhi knows that famous singers are well paid. “When I become a singer I will travel a lot, I will see many places and my father will not have to leave us to earn money”, she says.
During summer holidays Varduhi and her elder sister Susana, 11, help their mother and grandmother to run the house and take care of the small yard by the house.
“I usually help by tending the planted vegetables and trees. I water them almost every day and I also remove the weeds”, says Varduhi.
The Poghossyan children have never seen a playground. They play on the inter–village road which is actually a narrow dusty path right in front of their house. Their mother has to stand by the door of the house and watch over her children. “I am afraid something will happen to my children, after all it is a road and cars pass it quite frequently”, explains Anahit.
The newly opened Gavar Area Development Programme (ADP), funded by World Vision Taiwan, has already registered 1,000 children to be sponsored from impoverished families. Some 120 children already have sponsors, while others are excited about being sponsored and having a friend in Taiwan.
World Vision plans to implement a number of development projects to meet the most urgent needs of Lanjaghbuyr Community, among them agricultural projects, renovation of educational facilities and construction of playgrounds.
For Varduhi, sponsorship was something completely foreign, but now she knows that if she has a sponsor, she has a friend who lives in another country and who will write to her, talk to her and at the same time will support her village and her family.
“I would tell my sponsor about my life, my family, my friends and my school. And I will be so happy if he tells me about his life”, says Varduhi.
Varduhi’s younger brother Romeo, 6, is also part of World Vision Armenia’s Child Sponsorship programme.
Romeo is fond of playing with the sand and constructing things. In a tiny corner of their house where his grandmother has brought sand from the shores of the Lake Sevan, Romeo can play for hours. He would sit on a broken chair and silently make palaces and castles, houses and faces.
He also likes to play with a “toy” made of a small wheel and iron stick at the end.
This quiet boy is hesitant to speak to a stranger, but his mother Anahit shares, “He was so excited when World Vision people came to take his photo. He asked so many questions; what is a sponsor, and where is Taiwan”?
Varduhi lives with her seven-member family in Landjaghbyur Village in Gavar Region, Armenia.Life is hard in Landjaghbyur; for adults the unemployment and lack of any income create real hardships. For children - it is the lack of extra-curricular activities, dilapidated school and no playground. But for all the villagers of Landjaghbyur, the most severe hardship is the cold winter.
Varduhi’s father Karen Poghossyan, 32, had to leave for Yerevan, located some 120km from Gavar Region in search of a job to be able to provide for the family. “The children do not see their father for weeks at a time, but there is no way out; our whole family lives on his earnings”, shares Varduhi’s mother Anahit Harutyunyan, 30.
Karen is a construction worker in Yerevan and has to spend most of the year in the capital. “He sends us some 15,000-20,000 Armenian drams (US$50- 65) each month so that we all - my three children and my parents-in-law – can make ends meet”, says Anahit.
These 15,000 drams are just enough to buy bread for the family “These 15,000 drams are just enough to buy bread for the family”, says Anahit.
Anahit is concerned about the future of her children. “With the money we earn today, we will never be able to give our children a proper education”, she fears.
“Varduhi is an excellent student at school and it is such a pity that everything she learns will be lost because we do not have money for her education”, says Anahit.
...it is such a pity that everything she learns will be lost because we do not have money for her education Varduhi knows that famous singers are well paid. “When I become a singer I will travel a lot, I will see many places and my father will not have to leave us to earn money”, she says.
During summer holidays Varduhi and her elder sister Susana, 11, help their mother and grandmother to run the house and take care of the small yard by the house.
“I usually help by tending the planted vegetables and trees. I water them almost every day and I also remove the weeds”, says Varduhi.
The Poghossyan children have never seen a playground. They play on the inter–village road which is actually a narrow dusty path right in front of their house. Their mother has to stand by the door of the house and watch over her children. “I am afraid something will happen to my children, after all it is a road and cars pass it quite frequently”, explains Anahit.
The newly opened Gavar Area Development Programme (ADP), funded by World Vision Taiwan, has already registered 1,000 children to be sponsored from impoverished families. Some 120 children already have sponsors, while others are excited about being sponsored and having a friend in Taiwan.
World Vision plans to implement a number of development projects to meet the most urgent needs of Lanjaghbuyr Community, among them agricultural projects, renovation of educational facilities and construction of playgrounds.
For Varduhi, sponsorship was something completely foreign, but now she knows that if she has a sponsor, she has a friend who lives in another country and who will write to her, talk to her and at the same time will support her village and her family.
“I would tell my sponsor about my life, my family, my friends and my school. And I will be so happy if he tells me about his life”, says Varduhi.
Varduhi’s younger brother Romeo, 6, is also part of World Vision Armenia’s Child Sponsorship programme.
Romeo is fond of playing with the sand and constructing things. In a tiny corner of their house where his grandmother has brought sand from the shores of the Lake Sevan, Romeo can play for hours. He would sit on a broken chair and silently make palaces and castles, houses and faces.
He also likes to play with a “toy” made of a small wheel and iron stick at the end.
This quiet boy is hesitant to speak to a stranger, but his mother Anahit shares, “He was so excited when World Vision people came to take his photo. He asked so many questions; what is a sponsor, and where is Taiwan”?
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