Benefactor Karpis Nikoghosyan, who is well-known in the Shekher village of the Martuni region of Karabagh, paid a visit to the village recently. He was there with minister of urbanization of Karabagh Marat Hakobjanyan to discuss the new project aimed towards solving the problems concerning the construction of the new school gym.
The new middle school building of the Shekher village was opened in 2002. The building had been constructed and furnished by French Armenian benefactors Mr. and Mrs. Karpis Nikoghosyan. The couple had donated nearly 120,000 dollars for the construction and furnishing of the school. According to the minister of urbanization of Karabagh, construction of the school/gym will start in the months of May and June and 120-130,000 dollars is needed for the construction. According to benefactor K. Nikoghosyan, the Artsakh Aid Association of the Armenian community of France will take the initiative of constructing the school gym. With the new school gym, it will not only be possible to organize sport, but cultural events as well.
During an interview with “168 Hours”, principal of the school Hamlet Ghulyan said that currently, there are 66 students at the school. According to him, Mr. Nikoghosyan visits the school two times a year, checks up on how the school is doing, how the students study and even social issues.
“Our benefactor even lends a helping hand to the needy students studying at the Artsakh State University. He pays the tuitions for three of the students,” said H. Ghulyan.
He also says that the school has professors in every subject besides foreign languages. That’s why that subject hasn’t been taught for years at the school.
Overall, in contrast to other villages of the region, there are few major issues in Shekher. The benefactors are mainly the ones taking care of the issues.
Head of the community Baghdasar Ghulyan said that currently there are 410 people living in the village. They mainly occupy themselves with cattle-raising, gardening, growing vegetables and producing grains. In fact, according to Ghulyan, grain production is the main source of income for the villagers, although there were some that didn’t receive any source of income from that last year due to small crops and the low price on grain.
The youth of the village is mainly occupied with farming. Besides that, there is a sheet metal production site where there are 7-8 young workers, while 6-7 young people work at a construction site. On their free time, the youth generally gather at the Culture Home, play chess, checkers or simply chat. Despite this, after conducting a survey among youth, it turned out that they complain about having nothing to do, which may become a reason for many youth to leave the village. According to village head, nobody has left the village in the past 10-12 years. Seven to twelve children are born in the village yearly, there are many multi-member families and houses are currently under construction for two of those families. The other family will have a place to call home next year. The entire village is gasified. There are no issues concerning water, communication and transportation. However, there is an issue concerning the passage going through the village, as well as the remodeling of the hospital and club. The village head says that the problem with the road can only be solved with the money collected during the yearly telethon organized by the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund. He says that they need a lot of money to improve the roads, because neither the community, nor the village residents can pay that much.