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Volunteering in Armenia:
Parent & Child Build 2010
By
Frans van Rossum
Volunteering
in Armenia for Habitat for Humanity, one week in July 2010,
was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for both my teenage
son and me. What makes something a once-in-a-lifetime experience,
in the best sense of the phrase, even when after two months
the euphoria has faded and life is back to "normal routines?"
The literal meaning is simple. I'd never before volunteered
for Habitat, and I'd never been in Armenia. Everything was
new, a first in my life. Period. But figuratively speaking?
How come I keep having these feelings of pure happiness,
pleasure, joy, satisfaction, and excitement even as I begin
writing this?
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I believe it's because each and every one of the many people
we met during this one-week Global Village trip became a
dear and unique friend. That's an unusually high score for
one week! A few dozen strangers added to your life, all
people you want to meet again and spend time with, not just
"time" but "quality time" as they say in the USA.
Apart from that, it was no coincidence. I believe the key
was Habitat for Humanity, or specifically the Habitat people
who organized this event, and guided us through practically
every moment of it. Habitat is a global not-for-profit organization
that helps people to a home, essentially with the help of
volunteers and donations.
Habitat for Humanity plays a tangible
role in the staggering task of securing for mankind one
of its basic rights and needs: providing families with the
protection and security of a safe home. If you've had a
home all your life you can't imagine what the impact is
of not having a home, of never having had a home.
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The need
for it is different in different countries, but it's always
harrowing for anyone to have to live life without a home.
Even for us, who probably never have to live under such
circumstances, the thought of it is scary.
Into Armenia
Habitat Armenia, small as it seems, is an extraordinary,
productive organization. It was established in 2000, and
in only 10 years it has completed about 600 projects. An
average of 60 houses per year, or more than one house per
week! This should make any commercial developer or construction
firm jealous.
Our Global Village team joined as part
of the Parent & Child Build, working on the house of
Nahapet Datvyan and his family. It’s tucked away in
a suburban village on the outskirts of Yerevan, Armenia’s
capital. Some architecture of Yerevan makes you believe
that the country is in good condition, wealthy even, but
when we drove back and forth between the incomparable hostel
of our friend Aleks and Nahapet’s house, I began noticing
the often-dismal state of buildings and houses.
A good number are unoccupied; some seem to be deserted for ages and are falling apart. The discrepancies are glaring. Here's the recently built glorious national cathedral, said to be financed by wealthy Armenians in the Diaspora, a monument to the vitality of the faithful in Armenia. But twice each day we drive by a monumental rubber products plant, in Soviet days a reliable source of income for thousands and thousands of industrious people, now all but deserted. It stands there straight from a nightmare, like a rusty scrap monster falling apart.
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Nahapet’s house sits in a maze-like neighborhood with
narrow, unpaved streets and alleys. One house next to the
other, but no cars, no people, no sign of daily life. It’s
not a ghost town, but rather an area where the plug was
pulled years ago. Life has been halted until further notice,
and it seems to have acquiesced to the circumstances.
This is Nor Kharberd, a community selected by Habitat Armenia as one of its long-term core renovation and revitalization projects. Almost every structure here wants serious work. Here and there a house is plastered with fresh yellow. We see one that's finished and looking good; it's one of Habitat's recently completed Women Build projects!
Several hundred houses in Nor Kharberd are waiting to be rebuilt or renovated by Habitat and the owners. If things go as planned -and I'm sure they will!-some years from now this neighborhood will sizzle with life again.
Nahapet is, by Armenian standards, not a poor man. About
10 percent of the Armenian population lives below the standard
poverty line but he's not one of them. After all, he's the
owner of a nice-sized, two-story house on a good lot. He
and his wife and two children live with his brother; he
drives a car (and we all can testify he makes the most finger-licking
dishes out of the simplest ingredients! Armenian cuisine
is to die for!). He works hard, and he has a job. But given
Armenia's economy his job provides only a low income. Since he inherited the worn-out and run-down property many years ago, he has never had the means to make his house habitable.
There are no mortgages or bank loans available.
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A friend and partner
Nahapet is a perfect candidate for a partnership with Habitat.
Habitat is no Santa Claus, or something out of a fairy tale. Like, one early morning you wake up in your new house. Lucky me! Look at this? How did that happen?
No, Habitat works its miracles in strict partnership. It gives value for its money, and more. One of the local Habitat slogans I like is: "Helping people to turn hope into a home." The emphasis here is on helping. Nahapet is someone who does help himself.
So, who is really rebuilding Nahapet's house? Habitat or Nahapet?
You're right, it's Nahapet.
He takes great pride in it. When you walk through the iron gate of his walled property, you're amazed to see a garden with an orchard. All is well tended. It's an oasis in this hot, dry summer. Flowers are in full bloom, vines grow high over the patio providing shade against the sun. A funny little fountain keeps our water bottles chilled, there's a shaded swing chair, a brightly colored bench, a fire place for cooking and grilling, and in the shadow of a blue tarpaulin on green metal poles there's a long table with benches and comfortably old couches where we have lunch. It's an outdoor home. It's perfect. You feel Nahapet's care and pride, and with the help from Habitat, the house will be his home before too long!
If I've understood it well, Habitat's approach to helping homeowners is a clever idea tailored to reality. The organization temporarily "adopts" the needs of someone like Nahapet. He receives help in a number of ways. Habitat, as a non-profit organization, helps him with a loan entirely tailored to his income and financial circumstances. Habitat doesn't profit from its loan from Nahapet. The loan carries little or no risk that it will ever gag him. His income allows him to pay it off completely over a period of time.
With this money Nahapet can, for instance, buy materials, and pay the professional construction workers he needs. Habitat provides professional supervision to secure the quality of work, as well as groups of (unskilled) volunteers, local and foreign, for help at various stages of the construction until the job is done. Each volunteer also donates a small sum to Habitat which, one way or the other, helps pay for construction needs. Nahapet puts his in own time and labor as well. So in the end, once the loan is paid off, he should be proud forever. His renovated home is his; meanwhile, until he has paid off the loan, he and his family can enjoy comfort and privacy, as they deserve.
Helping hands
This way of helping sets the stage for the spirit that we all enjoyed so much on the job site. We were a true team: teenagers, young, older and old adults from various places in the world. Together we followed our supervisor Vlad's instructions: We cleared tons of rubble from the old structure, sifted sand in handmade sifts, hauled it in a wheelbarrow, shoveled and mixed it with water until Vlad's expert eye saw that it was good. Then we formed a line and got the heavy buckets up to the first floor where Usta and Nahapet were erecting walls.
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As a team, we helped one another with helping Nahapet turn his high hopes into a home: bucket by bucket, brick by brick. We were all novices in this kind of work so it was often hard labor in record-high temperatures. We worked a few sweats, but it was fun and unforgettable. Every moment of it.
When we left after the week was over, the house wasn't finished, but the renovation was on schedule: the first floor stood with all its walls and a ceiling. At the end of the week we walked through spaces that soon would be the rooms of the family's living quarters.
Nahapet is a quiet man of few words (well, we didn't speak our mutual language, and still, his English was better than our Armenian), but he showered us with appreciation whenever he could.
He was our great host at the farewell party, cutting the meat and vegetables and grilling them for the delicious banquet in the fireplace.
His wife and two children were out of town so that we never met them, unfortunately, but he had invited his brother and family and his in-laws to come and party with us.
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And, boy, did they know how to be happy and make us all dance, like Armenians seem to do whenever they can!
Breaking up our close team, saying goodbye to our friends, to Nahapet, to Vlad, Habitat's construction supervisor, to Usta, the master builder, to Sergey, our translator and indefatigable, expert co-worker, and to the other Armenian volunteers, was an emotional moment. No one would have minded staying and helping with the renovation until we all could see Nahapet and his family move into their home.
And then there was Armenia. After we volunteered, we had the opportunity to drive into the heart of this old cradle of Western civilization, at the crossroads of East and West. Habitat had put together a smart, intense "discover Armenia, old and young" program for us that gave soul and meaning to our volunteering. It gave it a profound social and cultural context. We felt like personal guests instead of visiting tourists!
I began to understand Armenians' vitality, quiet urgency and perseverance; their efficiency, team spirit, hospitality, joy, heartfelt appreciation and friendship. That's how I came to understand and admire the hard work and high spirits of the other local Armenian volunteers, and the feisty and frank intelligence of the members of the Women Association we met. That's how I see the efforts of Habitat Armenia, its achievements and ambitions. It takes part in the daunting task of its people and knows how to go about it. Actually, I'm proud that I could be part for one week of their ongoing efforts.
One question we had to answer in the final Global Village team evaluation asked whether or not we thought that we had received value for our money. I got angry, then puzzled, and didn't answer the question. How can one even think of hanging a dollar tag on "helping to turn hope into a home," particularly when the "customer" in the process receives more friendship and appreciation, more insights, knowledge, and understanding of people and life, than he can ever give?
Thank you Habitat for Humanity for a once-in-a-lifetime, priceless experience!
Frans van Rossum is a classical music historian and writer from Amsterdam, who participated in the 2010 Parent & Child Build in Armenia, along with his son.
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