ARINE – 2/9/2023

The Prelacy’s Orphan Sponsorship program, established in 1993, remains the centerpiece of the Prelacy’s mission in Armenia and Artsakh. We are pleased to share some of the letters that children regularly address to their sponsors.  

This week’s letter is from Arine, who is sponsored by Valentin Kazanjian. 

* We use only the first names of the children to protect their privacy. 

Dear Sponsor, 

This is Arine. I was born on November 9, 2005, in Russia, but after living there for three years we moved to Kapan city. I spent my childhood in Kapan where my roots are from. After I graduated from the 9th grade of Kapan’s #6 middle school, I went to Okhtar high school where I am in 12th grade. I am a future psychologist. My favorite subjects in school are Armenian language and Literature and English. I live with my grandmother and sister. My grandmother has some health issues. My sister is older than me by 3 years. 

I went to dance classes for seven years, but I stopped after the 2020 Azeri aggression. I also went to English after-school program classes and to gymnastics for one and a half years, but I had to drop out because it was interfering with my school studies.  

From 2020 we live in a war situation. We live in fear and distress because we surrender our country piece by piece. We are afraid to sleep peacefully because every moment the enemy can attack again. Kapan city became a border zone. Every day on our way to school we see the enemy’s territory by the airport. Weeks ago, I thought that I was appreciating life, my relatives, and the people surrounding me, but I realize now that I just grasped the meaning of appreciation after experiencing the fear of losing them. The war in our country is not over, and it is not over in our souls. The war changed all our lives and left a huge emptiness in our hearts. It is very painful to see the city without its 18-20-year-old boys, so painful… 

Why is it that in other countries children only think about fun, and here, as soon as they can understand these things, children think about either not losing their country, or helping its defenders, or defending it themselves, or being forced to leave it? 

And I know for sure that history repeats itself. 

With love, 

Arine