The Armenian community of Canada has raised $30,000.

On November 12, more than 400 Canadian-Armenians participated in the grand fundraising banquet organized by the Canada affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund in Toronto. The banquet also featured an auction during which Armenian football player Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s shirt was sold for $20,000.

As reported the Fund to Hayern Aysor, the event was dedicated to the 150^th anniversary of Canada and the 25^th anniversary of the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.

The event featured a speech by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Armenia to Canada Levon Martirosyan, who attached importance to the Fund’s role in the development of independent Armenia and Artsakh.

Chairman of the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Meguerditch Meguerditchian provided details about the last 12 programs, stating that the Toronto affiliate has carried out a total of 72 projects with donations from the Armenians of Toronto. Through the last initiatives, the Toronto affiliate built a school in Ukhtasar village; donated an ambulance truck to Dadivank village and provided the village with water supply; built four apartment buildings in Tchartar, Ukhtadzor, Kusapat and Lusadzor; built bathrooms near the monastic complexes in Shushi, Amaras and Dadivank; built a Life Center in Khndzoristan and an outdoor playground for the school in Nalbandyan village (repaired and partially rebuilt through a donation from Toronto-Armenian benefactors Berjouhi and Armen Nalbandians in 2016). The chairman of the Toronto affiliate also presented the current initiatives and the “Water is Life” Program, which will be carried out in 2018 and will provide rural communities with irrigation water. This major program includes drilling of deep wells and the construction of an electric pump station and water pipelines that will help transfer irrigation water to land parcels of multi-member families, allowing those families to cultivate their lands.

Ahead of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s annual Telethon, the local affiliates of the Fund are organizing similar events to raise funds in different countries around the world. The $530,000 raised by the Armenians of Canada will be donated to the Telethon to be held under the title “Fruitful Artsakh” on 23 November. The goal of this year’s Telethon is to build an irrigation system and install solar energy stations in Artsakh.