On June 13, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan participated in the opening of the Aleco and Ani Bezikian Family Center built and furbished at the initiative of the Armenian Sisters of Immaculate Conception Congregation and through funding provided by Italian-Armenian benefactors Aleco and Ani Bezikian. Built on the Tbilisi Highway in Yerevan, the Center is the continuation of the Gyumri-based “Tiramayr Hayastani” School and is designed to serve as a dwelling and center for young girls who come from socially disadvantaged families and will be studying at educational institutions in Yerevan. As benefactor Aleco Bezikian mentioned, the Center will serve for providing Armenian girls and future mothers with exemplary Christian and national education with all of its accommodations and the opportunities that it has to offer.

Expressing appreciation to the Bezikians, Minister Hranush Hakobyan viewed this initiative as a wonderful example of real patriotism, benevolence and spiritual unity.

Among those attending the opening ceremony were the delegates of Pope Francis I and Catholicos-Patriarch Nerses-Bedros XIX of the Armenian Catholic Church, leader of the Catholic Church of Armenia, Father, Archbishop Rafael Minasyan, foreign Ambassadors to the Republic of Armenia, public, cultural and religious figures, as well as several Diaspora Armenians visiting Armenia.