May 24 was a special day for “Armenian Caritas” as the finalist of Aurora prize 2017 Dr. Tom Catena and his colleagues honored the office by their presence. Dr. Catena practices and treats around 750,000 patients in the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Sudan. Patients frequently travel by foot for up to a week to reach him. Dr. Catena was born in New York City and received his medical degree from Duke University.  In 1990 Dr. Catena joined the Catholic Medical Mission Board which, by the way, was a generous supporter of “Armenian Caritas.” Before moving to Sudan, Dr.

The older a person becomes the more his health turns into an asset to be taken care of. Thus special treatment, care and medications are required and to be provided by geriatricians (aged care specialists), which lack in Armenia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a continuation of a free-of-charge 3-day training in the summer of 2016 for the AC nurses and for the Armenian care institutions and respective NGOs conducted by Victoria Kaprielian, MD, FAAFP Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Medical Education of Campbell University and her team, the June of 2017 became one more milestone in the development of geriatrics for “Armenian Caritas” Home Care project,

From the 7th to 10th of November, Valentina Chupik, one of the representatives of Tong Jahoni International NGO in Moscow, visited Armenia within the framework of Promoting Protection of Labour Migrants by Strengthening Partnership in Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Russia program implemented by Armenian Caritas Benevolent NGO. Valentina Chupik is an experienced human rights defender in Russia more specifically specialized in the field of migrants’ rights. So, the purpose of her visit was to conduct training sessions for the employees of State Employment Agency under the Ministry of Labour and Social Issues of the Republic of Armenia, as well as for the employees of “Armenian Caritas” NGO and other NGOs.

On September 27th within the framework of “Overcoming the consequences of war together” international project implementing by “German-Russian Exchange” organization (Germany) in partnership with “Armenian Caritas” in Armenia, all international partners: the project manager Maria Slezachek from Germany, the representatives from Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya (Russia) as well as the local NGOs operating in various regions of Armenia visited “Armenian Caritas” Headquarters. The project has started in Armenia since April 2017. During the project implementation, the representatives of the international group visited various civil society representing institutions in Ukraine and Georgia in order to study the experience of various integration programs of refugees and displaced people.