Forever Homes for Abandoned Armenians

Dear friends and donors - 

It's summertime and we have some news for you!  As always, we are deeply grateful for the ways you give to our residents.  Your gifts make such a difference in our residents' lives and in our home.  Please reach out to us if you have any questions or if you are visiting Armenia.  We would love to welcome you to our home and project for a visit.  

Here are a few updates from the field.  The full-length web version of this newsletter with photos can be found here.   

Creating an Art Community

UNISON, a Yerevan nonprofit serving individuals with disabilities, opened their arts studio to our residents this year.  Two residents visit weekly to paint.  They travel there independently, which speaks to their growth!

This is a truly collaborative effort.  Costs are lovingly covered by SOAR-Colorado, a group dedicated to seeing the arts program at Warm Hearth unfold and expand.  Our residents are blossoming with the arts program as they learn new skills, make new friends, and create beauty.

Hasmik, Armine and Agappy especially love this program and their gifts have been singled out by the instructor who is able to see them with new eyes.  Different people see different gifts in our residents and vice versa.

We are reminded why the world needs our residents and why our residents need the world.  We need others (including you) to call out our residents’ beauty and giftedness.  We want to see them through your eyes.  We want you to be touched by them as well.

To put it simply, we need one another, and are richer for this interdependence.

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Resident Profile

Roman recently experienced some serious health problems recently that required surgery.  Now he is home again and thriving.

He has been changed by the way the staff cared for him through the experience.   He knows that he can deeply trust them and he feels safe at our home.  He knows where to turn when he needs help.  His health has improved overall since the surgery.  We are grateful for this.

As always, he still enjoys putting puzzles together and his smile still lights up a room.

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Working With Our Hands

As we mentioned in the Annual Report, this year we are working toward creating outlets for our residents in terms of community, art, and vocation.

We are in the throes of considering small business ideas like baking bread that our residents can be intimately involved in and that are feasible in the local market.

This initiative is one that we foresee will enrich the residents’ lives and make our home more sustainable long-term, thus making it possible to reallocate some of our resources to care for more people in need.

We have a few funding possibilities, which is incredible, but what we need before funds is additional support on creating a solid business plan.  It’s hard work!  And, as you know, we subsist with as few hired hands as possible and rely heavily on volunteers.

If you have started a small business and feel your experience could transfer to our home, please reach out.  

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“It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey…  The impeded stream is the one that sings.”                          -Wendell Berry

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Residents' Handicrafts Now for Sale

The residents have been busy creating beautiful artisan carpets.  Purchase some here to support our residents and our home.  

Thank you for your generousity.  

Sincerely,

Natalie Bryant-Rizzieri

Links:

• http://www.friendsofwarmhearth.org