AGBU Flagship Program Discover Armenia Celebrates 10 Years

Milestone Anniversary Marks a Decade of Making a Difference

Since 2003, the AGBU Discover Armenia program has brought diasporan teens together in their ancestral homeland, where they’ve created countless memories—and volunteered hundreds of hours to strengthen local communities. Now, after a decade of growth, the flagship summer initiative is celebrating the lives they’ve touched.

The three-week Discover Armenia trip, which takes participants from Yerevan to Nagorno-Karabakh, and all the landmarks in between, has always maintained a special focus on community service. Its tenth year was no exception for the 28-person group, which included students from Canada, France, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. Among the highlights were helping a family construct a home in the village of Ujan, delivering meals at the AGBU Senior Dining Centers, visiting an orphanage in Gyumri, and donating a record-breaking number of books to a Stepanakert library.

Every summer since 2009, Discover Armenia groups have arrived with packages of books for the H. Tumanian National Children’s Library in the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. To date, the program has donated over 2,000 English and French books to the library, filling the shelves of its foreign language pavilion. This year, during a three-day trip to NKR, the students toured the space as staff unveiled a plaque honoring their contributions. Bearing the AGBU Discover Armenia logo, it now stands proudly among the stacks.

Discover Armenia director Herminé Duzian commented on the plaque’s significance, stating, “Since the very beginning, promoting community service has been a priority for the AGBU Discover Armenia program. The diasporan youth have an incredible eagerness to make a difference and their development projects are some of the most meaningful and unforgettable parts of the trip. As they volunteer together, they make lifelong friends and strengthen their bonds with their heritage. They return home more connected to each other and to the country. We are very glad to see this plaque in the library.”

While the children of Stepanakert take advantage of their new literature, those in the Terchoonian Home Orphanage in Gyumri will enjoy heating throughout the winter, made possible by Discover Armenia participant Philippe Tarjan. A high school senior whose great-grandmother was rescued by an institution just like the Terchoonian Home, Tarjan was inspired to give back. In the weeks leading up to the trip, he organized fundraisers in his New York hometown, collecting $3,000, which he personally presented to the organization’s director Sona Simonyan. The donation will help keep the building warm over the next few months, and was one of the many gifts the Discover Armenia group brought to the youth on their visit.

Tarjan reflected on his project, and the program as a whole, remarking, “Spending time at the Terchoonian Home was as memorable as it was emotional. With Discover Armenia, we never felt simply like tourists. Whether we were helping build homes, keeping senior citizens company, or paying respects to the sites of our ancestors, we were always acting as global citizens effecting positive change.”

The group celebrated the change they helped create, and the 10 years that came before them, during a final performance at the AGBU Nork Children’s Center. Throughout their stay, they had participated in a folk dancing and singing course at the Center, and were ready to take the stage. Together with the AGBU Yerevan office staff, they celebrated the end of Discover Armenia’s first decade and welcomed the decades to come during their farewell party.

Applications are currently being accepted for Discover Armenia Summer 2014. Participants are eligible to earn 40 hours of community service credit at their high schools. For more information, visit www.discoverarmenia.org or email Herminé Duzian at: hduzian@agbueurope.org.