An Armenian proverb says, “One needs to have a roof over his head.” Accordingly, ‘’Sohm’’ an Austrian construction company within a few days built the walls and roof of “Emil’s Little Sun” day care center for people with disabilities. Eight employees of Sohm Company arrived in Gyumri on June the 2nd. Sohm is famous for specializing in wooden construction such as homes, public and commercial buildings as well as agricultural and special structures.
An Armenian proverb says, “One needs to have a roof over his head.” Accordingly, ‘’Sohm’’ an Austrian construction company within a few days built the walls and roof of “Emil’s Little Sun” day care center for people with disabilities. Eight employees of Sohm Company arrived in Gyumri on June the 2nd. Sohm is famous for specializing in wooden construction such as homes, public and commercial buildings as well as agricultural and special structures.
A few months before their arrival, Sohm Company made some of the wooden features for our new center. These materials were transported from Vorarlberg, Austria to Gyumri, Armenia in more than 15 trucks. During the past two weeks the construction of the wooden part of the building was completed. According to the Austrian tradition this phase of construction is usually celebrated on site with all the people who have been involved in this process.
The blessing of the Caritas personnel, the building and everyone involved in the construction process was held on June 11th. Volunteers Stefanie Thaler and Bernd Fischer organized this Austrian traditional ceremony attended by Gagik Tarasyn, Armenian Caritas executive director and person responsible for the construction and the Austrian workers.
The event began with a performance organized by the Austrian workers. They spoke on behalf of the building, as if it were a person, presenting its facilities and its mission. Then according to Austrian tradition, those present were invited to drink vodka then look through the empty vodka bottle at a tree put on the roof of the building (just for this purpose). Afterward, everyone has gazed through the bottle, it must be broken. All these acts symbolize that great deeds even if they served a good mission, come with difficulties.
The celebration continued with traditional Armenian dishes, warm blessings and words of gratitude. Once again the friendship of two nations, with the guarantee of a future cooperation, was confirmed.
On behalf of Armenia and Armenian Caritas we express our gratitude once again to Austria, specifically to Richard Nikolussi, Daniel Zadra, Martin Huber and Norbert Mathis, Bernd and Claudia Fischer and everyone who supports the realization of the dream called “Emil’s Little Sun.”
We express our special gratitude to Stefanie Thaler for having organized this wonderful event