Today Orange Foundation and World Vision Armenia announced the results of the second month of implementation of “Let’s Keep Children Home” SMS charity project. This project gives the chance to every Orange customer to support Armenian children whose families, due to financial difficulties, cannot keep them at home and deliver them to the care of state institutions. By sending SMS to 1234 short number, Orange customers donate 100 AMD and by sending SMS to 5678 short number – 500 AMD. In July Orange customers donated a total of 343,700 AMD. As it has been announced earlier, the Orange Foundation in its turn will double the money donated by customers all together, i.e., thanks to this money raising project the Orange Foundation will transfer 687,400 AMD to World Vision Armenia, which will use this amount to help Romik’s and Armine’s family living in Syunik region. They have 6 children and due to financial difficulties they have had to deliver two of them, 14-year-old and 12-year-old daughters to the care of the Kapan boarding institution. The collected amount, to which World Vision Armenia will add 650,000 AMD, will be enough to buy a combine harvester which will allow the father of the family to work. Taking into consideration the poor quantity of agricultural machinery in the Syunik region, this kind of services are quite necessary. Having a source of revenue, the family will be able to take back the two children. “First of all we would like to thank our customers for their participation in this initiative. The Orange Foundation has doubled the contribution of each of them. One of the most important advantages of this project is that every Orange customer can have his/her contribution to helping children who have parents but, nevertheless, are forced to live and grow in a children’s home. The project will be ongoing, and this month as well we are expecting donations which will enable to bring tangible changes into the lives of many other children,” said Bruno Duthoit, Chairman of the Board of the Orange Foundation in Armenia. “We thank Orange customers for every dram donated. This time the collected amount was not enough to buy the agricultural machine, but taking into consideration the social conditions of this large family and the perspective of keeping home the children, World Vision Armenia decided to have as well a financial contribution. The donation will enable us to give this family a new start in life and make it possible for the two girls to enjoy their family’s presence and everyday care,” said Lusine Simonyan, “Stakeholders Acting Together for Child Protection in Armenia” project coordinator. World Vision Armenia has many years of work experience with vulnerable families living in difficult financial conditions. By the efforts of its experts and social workers, World Vision Armenia will organize professional works with these families. Such work aims to improve social and economic conditions of such families, thus, enabling parents to keep their children at home. The project will last 1 year during which the Orange Foundation will regularly provide information regarding the donated money and the children and families who will be the beneficiaries of this project. For privacy reasons the last name of the beneficiary family and the names of the children are not indicated.

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