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Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Greek affiliate will kick off its sixth annual phoneathon on November 19. In the course of the two-day fundraising event, volunteers will make calls to close to 1,600 Armenian households in Athens and other Greek cities, to request donations toward the construction of the kindergarten of Karin Tak, a village in Artsakh’s Shushi Region.

As the press service of the Funds reports in a statement, the kindergarten-construction project, now underway, is a joint initiative with Hayastan All-Armenian Fund benefactors in Argentina and Cyprus as well as the government of Artsakh. The project is slated to be completed in summer 2017. 

“Although for a small Armenian community such as ours, it’s hard to sponsor major projects on our own, we continue to help implement them by teaming up with other affiliates of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund,” said Vatche Der-Garabedian, chairman of the fund’s Greek affiliate. “I think such collaborative efforts are marvelous symbols of pan-national unity. It’s thanks to this type of collaboration that projects such as the construction of the community center of Khachmach, a village in Artsakh’s Askeran Region, were made possible.” Der-Garabedian added that if, as he hopes, proceeds from the phoneathon in Greece surpass expectations, the Greek-Armenian community will go on to sponsor an additional development project in the homeland.

The total raised through the phoneathon in Greece, as well as the totals of proceeds from all 2016 Hayastan Fund fundraising campaigns worldwide, will be announced at the conclusion of the organization’s flagship annual event, the Thanksgiving Day Telethon, on November 24.  

Emulating the successful model of the fund’s Pan-European Phoneathon, which is headed by the French affiliate, the Greek affiliate has held local phoneathons since 2010, to date raising a total of 140,000 euros for various projects in Armenia.