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AYF Youth Corps Builds Bridge to
Homeland
By Vartan Dudukjian
 Seven
young Armenians from southern California have decided to
spend their summer as volunteers in Armenia running a day
camp for underprivileged kids in Armenia’s second largest
city of Gyumri.
Organized by the AYF’s Youth Corps, the camp opened its
doors on Mon., July 28, accepting 40 children for its first
session. Word spread quickly around town and on Tuesday
twice as many campers turned out, eager to sign up and meet
the diasporans who dedicated their summers and flew half way
around the world to open a day camp for children in Armenia.
The day camp, which operates five days a week, is managed
and run solely by a team of seven Armenian-American college
students—Talar Boyajian, Sahag Yedalian, Hilton Sorkazian,
Ani Petrossian, Anahid Yahjian, Nina Dangourian, and Vache
Thomassian.
The seven Youth Corps volunteers are working as camp
counselors, offering children, ages 10-15, English language
courses, organized sports activities, song and dance
lessons, and arts and crafts classes. In addition, campers
are also taken on weekly field trips, the first of which was
a trip to a local museum on Thursday.
“Our mission this summer is simple,” explained Thomassian,
the group’s leader. “We want to connect Armenians in the
diaspora with Armenians in the homeland. Through this day
camp, Youth Corps can do just that and also provide direct
assistance to underprivileged youth—Armenia’s most valuable
and vulnerable citizens.”
“It’s only been a couple of days and you can already see the
bond forming between our campers and the Youth Corps
counselors,” Boyajian added. “This really expresses a
connection between Armenians despite their geographic
origins.”
“In the diaspora, we have grown accustomed to the idea that
Armenian youth activism starts and ends with educational
lectures and protests, but that’s just one, small aspect of
what it means to be an involved Armenian,” Yedalian
remarked. “When you send money to Armenia, the people only
see the money. But when you come here, role up your sleeves
and help, they see that Armenians in the diaspora care.”
Taking time to experience Armenia as more than just a
tourist is very important, they all agreed during a 2 a.m.
group interview over the phone. Quieting the others,
Dangourian grabbed the phone and stressed that she joined
the Youth Corps team because she wanted to experience
Armenia not as a tourist but as an Armenian.
“I wanted to build connections with the people here. As a
camp counselor I am doing just that,” Yahjian said, echoing
Dangourian’s sentiments.
“You really feel that this is your homeland after spending
an entire day working and playing with the campers.”
exclaimed Sorkazian, who is in Armenia for the first time
this summer. “I am literally investing my time, energy, and
talents into my country and my people.”
“The people here are really reaching out to us, coming up to
us on the streets to talk and thank us for opening the
camp,” Thomassian added. “We’re doing something right here.”
Landing in Yerevan on July 17, the Youth Corps team spent a
week exploring Armenia and Karabagh before arriving in
Gyumri, where they quickly began converting a local school
into their campground. In the days leading up to the camp’s
opening, the seven volunteers worked around the clock to
prepare the facilities where they would bring to life a day
camp.
“We had spent months planning the camp, working in
coordination with the AYF in Armenia to find a camp site,
create a curriculum, and work out all the logistics,”
explained Youth Corps chairperson Sose Thomassian. “That
took a lot of work, but the most challenging part of
organizing this year’s Youth Corps mission was figuring out
how we were going to fund the venture.”
Many thought the project was too big for a committee of
young volunteers to take on, she explained, but a lot of
dedicated people sacrificed their time and came together to
help raise the money needed to make the camp possible.
“Funding for the camp was done the old-fashioned way,” said
Youth Corps alumni and committee member Veronica Siranosian.
“We held car-washes at gas stations, hosted breakfasts at
community centers, and sold CDs and T-shirts from the trunks
of our cars to friends and family at churches, community
centers, the Navasartian Games, and all types of community
events.”
When asked why she volunteered to help with this year’s
program, Siranosian paused momentarily and asked, “Isn’t it
obvious?” Youth Corps changed her life, she said. “It gave
me a chance to make a difference in Armenia. Some of my best
memories are from laying bricks with my friends in a
Karabagh village.”
The AYF Youth Corps program is open to all youth over the
age of 18 who are motivated and enthusiastic about helping
Armenia. The program gives dedicated individuals a unique
opportunity to spend approximately six weeks in Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh, working with people on the ground to make
a tangible contribution to the homeland.
For more information, email ayfyouthcorps@gmail.com or call
(818) 507-1933.
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