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 letter is from Vahagn* who is sponsored by Aram and June Darmanian.
* We use only the first names of the children to protect their privacy.
Dear Sponsor,
My name is Vahagn. I am the first-born child of Tigran and Oksanna. I am 10 years old. I go to Hrant Dink middle school #44 in Yerevan. I am in 5th grade. Although I am not very big, I already saw many unfair things in this world. My brother and I lived in a family where love, mutual respect, and support ruled. I remember like it was yesterday how proudly I walked to school every day, holding the hand of my dad. Unfortunately, the wretched war started, and my father went to defend our country without even saying a proper goodbye to me. I haven’t seen my father since…
We lost our family’s key to happiness. I speak with my father’s photo that hangs on the wall of our apartment to ask for advice or just tell him about my memories. I am trying to be the way he would have liked me to be.
We didn’t have enough time to recover from our huge loss when the second blow was delivered to us. During the one-day war from September 19 to 20, we heard from grown-ups that they were going to make us leave our homes (we heard these conversations at night while standing in line to buy some bread). We would discuss this among us, children, and collectively decide that we were never going to leave our homes. We decided it, but we never had a chance to follow our decision.
I don’t even want to talk about all the feelings we felt during those days of hell. We got to Yerevan. We got accepted into school #44. Everyone in the school, starting with the teachers and ending with our classmates, welcomed us. I have many friends. I am doing well in school because I want to be a worthy son of my father.
Everything is well here, but I miss terribly our home, my Stepanakert. If I ever have a chance, I will go back to our Physmath district (in Stepanakert, Artsakh).