On December 19, AC year-end meeting took place at Emily Aregak Center headed by the president of Armenian Caritas Raphael Archbishop Minassian. The activities of 2018 were summed up during the meeting, which was started with blessings of Archbishop Minassian and the Lord’s Prayer. “Caritas is not just a common workplace, where you can hold a well-paid position. Caritas is a humanitarian, charitable mission, which seeks to improve social life, to help people, to serve and support people with disabilities. In these fields Caritas officials should be only humanists. So our approach for 2019 must be kind, but, at the same time,

  “Armenian Caritas” benevolent NGO launches the Program “Inclusive and equitable quality education for All”, targeting 7 schools and 7 kindergartens in Shirak Province. On December 14 the official presentation of the Program to the directors of targeted schools and kindergartens, as well as the Regional authorities, took place in the conference hall of Gyumri “Commercial Center”. The Executive Director of “Armenian Caritas” Gagik Tarasyan congratulated everyone on being selected to be part of the Program and expressed hope that the cooperation would be long-lasting and productive. Welcoming the Program, the deputy Head of the regional administration Sophia Hovsepyan mentioned,

The morning of October 17, 2018 commenced with a Holy Mess in Ordinariate of the Armenian Catholic church in Yerevan. The Mess was conducted by His Eminence Archbishop Raphael Minassian whose patriarchal message targeted the Caritas community, Caritas Family, whose mission is to serve the Armenian nation with love and compassion. The Mess was accompanied by Archimandrite Garnik Hovsepyan and Archimandrite Narek Mnoyan. The sacred ceremony was attended by representatives of various Caritas organizations-general secretary of European Caritas, representatives of the Spanish, German, French, Austrian, Check, Georgian Caritases, who arrived to meet their partner Armenian Caritas and in the morning to pray altogether for the benefit of the Armenian people.

“Aregak” First Inclusive and Barrier-free Bakery-Café unique in the area was opened in Gyumri. In the center of Gyumri the address- Abovyan 242 the inclusive café and bakery will implement its activity where exclusively young people having disability and parents of disabled children will work. The opening of café and bakery took place on 14 September.  Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Ambassador Pyotr Svitalski, the Ambassador of Germany Matias Kisler, the vice minister of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs RA Zaruhi Batoyan, representatives of regional and town authorities headed by Shirak deputy governor Sofya Hovsepyan, 

On August 15, Gyumri hosted the forum “Sarapat Consolidated Community: development opportunities and challenges” in the scope of the project “Civic Activism in Consolidated Community”. The “Civic Activism in Consolidated Community” project falls within the scope of the “Support to Capacity Building of Armenian Civil Society Organizations” (Strong CSOs) Project of the EU-funded Small Grants Program. Implemented by the consortium of Armenian Caritas BNGO, Women for Development NGO and Biosophia NGO, the “Civic Activism” project is co-funded by Caritas France.  In addition to the representatives of regional authorities and partner organizations, the residents of the consolidated communities were also present.