The Tufenkian Charitable Foundation has been carrying out its projects in the Kashatagh region of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic for more than a decade. The clinic in the Khachgetik village of Aghavnatun rural community, which was built this year and opened its doors on October 23, was also built with the participation of the Tufenkian Charitable Foundation.

The opening of this major structure was made possible through funding provided by ONE ARMENIA and the London-based ARMENIAN CENTRE TRUST (ACT). The Aghavnatun rural community is composed of the Harar, Khachgetik and Aghavnatun villages, each of which has a population of 11 families.

The rural community has a total population of 133 people, of which 30 are pre-school children and 24 are schoolchildren. The villages of the rural community were liberated in the end of the summer of 1993 and were resettled a year later. In the beginning, the school was located in the Harar village, and for more than a decade, it has been based in a two-story building located in the Khachgetik village. Schoolchildren from Harar and Khachgetik take a special bus to go to school.

Leader of the rural community Nazik Melkonyan attached importance to the opening of the clinic and expressed gratitude to the benefactors who had supported the residents of the community.

According to aparaj.am, among those attending the opening of the clinic were Deputy Minister of Health of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Karen Ghukasyan, Director of the Tufenkian Charitable Foundation Antranig Kasbarian, employees Maro Matosian, Edik Grigorian and George Tabakian, member of the board of trustees of the Armenian Centre Trust (Act) Tony Kahvé, deputy head of the administration of Kashatagh region Artush Mkhitaryan, executive director of the regional medical association Karlen Balayan, as well as doctors, guests and residents of the community.

The students of the school welcomed the gathered with their speeches and performances.

Deputy Minister of Health of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic congratulated the residents of the Aghavnatun rural community, attached importance to the role of the clinic and expressed his gratitude to the benefactors.

Tony Kahvé, one of the curators of the Armenian Centre Trust, mentioned that the construction of the clinic was the Trust’s first contribution to Artsakh.

“The Diaspora will always support Artsakh and help the country in all sectors,” said Tony, adding that the Trust’s representatives visited Artsakh a couple of months ago, were introduced to the problems of the rural community and jointly built the clinic.

George Tabakian, representative of the Tufenkian Foundation in the Republic of Armenia, mentioned that the Foundation became familiar with the community’s problems two years ago and attached importance to the role of this community, in the sense that the Kashatagh region is linked to Hadrut.

Astghik Saiadyan, representative of ONE ARMENIA, informed that the organization was established three years ago in Yerevan and is under the direction of Patrick Sarkisian. Throughout the years, ONE ARMENIA has built a drinking water pipeline in the Karotan village and has opened a kindergarten in Moshatagh. Saiadyan also mentioned that the organization plans to carry out other activities in the region in the future.

The benefactors visited the school located next to the clinic and became familiar with the problems, the major one of which was renovation of the building. The leader of the community said the tin plates of the roof were already rusty and needed to be changed. The representatives of the Tufenkian Foundation are willing to renovate the school whenever possible, but say that the construction material for the roof needs to be provided by the regional authorities.

Afterwards, the guests visited the multi-member Karapetyan family, which settled in the Aghavnatun rural community in August of this year and whose house was also fully repaired through funding provided by the Tufenkian Foundation.

Zohrab Eurkoian