Recently the Hayastan All-Armenian fund organized a telethon and collected 7,5 million dollars. Yesterday head of the fund Naira Melkumyan made an announcement regarding this. Last year they collected 11,5 dollars. Although the sum that the fund collected this year is less than the sum they collected last year, Naira Melkumyan says that the marathon was organized well and there were more donors this time. “It is worth to mention that there were more donors to take part in this marathon than last year. The number of Armenians donating average sums (1.000-25.000 dollars) increased rapidly this time. The number of young donors increased too”, -says Naira Melkumyan. In comparison with the marathon of last year, the number of people donating huge sums was less this time. There was only one donator who gave a huge sum: Louise Simone Manoukyan (1 million dollars). Head of Armenians’ union of Russia Ara Abrahamyan donated 250 thousand dollars. Mrs. Melkumyan says that the reason that this time there were few people donating huge sums is the fact that most of them sponsor other programs in Armenia now.
The collected sum is going to be aimed towards the “Artsakh revival” project implementation for the purpose to develop and support the Martakert region. The money is going to be spent to solve the existing problems of educational and health care institutions, as well as to solve the problem of drinking water here. The fund is also going to provide financial support to develop agriculture in this region. N. Melkumyan says that the decrease in the dollar exchange rate doesn’t help them carry out their activities quickly: “We include 10 % more financial support for all our programs to escape all possible problems and taking risks. But as a result of these changes we lose more. These changes mostly influenced on the “North-South” road construction program”, -says Naira Melkumyan.