RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan received President of the Board of Trustees of SOS Children’s Villages Armenian Charity Foundation Ashot Yesayan, the Foundation’s National Director Ashot Kocharyan and Project Development Director Grigori Hovhannisyan.

Minister Hranush Hakobyan and the members of SOS Children’s Villages ACF discussed issues on supporting children of socially disadvantaged Syrian-Armenians living in Armenia. The sides agreed on providing socially disadvantaged Syrian-Armenian families with material assistance (food, clothes) and writing utensils, reimbursing the families’ apartment rents and helping solve the families’ problems with employment and professional training. Through the Foundation, the children of Syrian-Armenian families will have the chance to participate in excursions and entertaining events. The Foundation will also provide solutions to healthcare issues concerning beneficiaries. The support program will also be targeted at nearly 150 Syrian-Armenian families for a one-year period.

To determine the beneficiaries of the charity program, SOS Children’s Villages ACF and the Center for Coordination of Syrian-Armenians’ Issues NGO will conduct an assessment on the social conditions and a needs assessment for Syrian-Armenian families. Based on the results of the needs assessment, the Foundation will draw up development programs for all the families.

Established in 1949 in Austria, SOS Children’s Villages is an independent, non-governmental organization for social development, and its purpose is to organize the care for children who became orphans and homeless after WWII. Today, the organization carries out activities in nearly 136 countries around the world. SOS Children’s Villages Armenian Charity Foundation was established in 1989 with the purpose of helping children who became orphans in the wake of the devastating earthquake and was the first SOS Children’s Villages organization in the former Soviet Union.

Currently, the activities of SOS Children’s Villages ACF include a broad range of childcare and family-building community services and educational programs. At the same time, the organization is involved in improving the protection of children in Armenia through the implementation of national programs aimed at protecting interests.