By Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri | Executive Director & Founder
Dear friends,
Relationships move at the speed of trust. Social change moves at the speed of relationships. (Bailey & Flowers)
2019 took us by surprise, plain and simple. We were getting our bearings having opened a second home in Arinj the year before. We were plodding faithfully along--hoping to secure some Armenian government funding for that home. We were dreaming up how best to include seven more residents who had been promised a homeafewyearsback. Wewere contemplating expanding the Arinj home to make room for them. But then in one fell swoop, the plans changed.
Alya, our director in Armenia, received a call from the Armenian Ministry of Labor & Social Issues. They promised some funding for our Arinj home but also for a portion of a 3rd home, if we could open it right away and if, in the future, we could cap our homes at eight residents.
Our first response was tentative. Is this what's best for those individuals? What size home do we prefer? Is this in line with our plans to focus on sustainability for our Armenian nonprofit in the next four years? Do the numbers support this path? After considering all these questions, we were met with a resounding yes.
We were thrilled that these individuals who had been impatiently waiting for a home of their own would have one sooner than we had dared to hope.
So, we dove right in. Together, we bought a third home in the quiet and humble village of Geghanist. And from that moment on, our foundationinArmeniatookthelead. They found staff and trained them. They bought local furniture and stocked the house with cups, knives,sheetsandblankets. Theyhungcurtains andassembledfurniture. Theywashedthe windows and dreamed of a beautiful life living alongside our newest residents. And finally, they tucked clean sheets on the new beds, fluffed the pillows and brought these people to their forever home in early 2020.
When we opened back in 2006, we began by building trust between resident and staff, with neighbors and governments. Now that trust sustains relationships that are allowing for this sort of social change to occur at a macro level. The Armenian government did not even know whatagrouphomewaswhenwestarted. And now, they are asking us to open more and helping us sustain them.
Thank you for making room in your heart for this gorgeous whirlwind of change and the wild hope that abandoned individuals with special needs could have a forever home. We could not do this without you.
Last, if you would like to view our full Annual Report, please click on the link below.
Sincerely yours,
Natalie Bryant Rizzieri
Links:
By Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri | Founder & Executive Director
By Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri | Founder & Executive Director
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