Մեր մասինAbout
A place at the table for Armenia’s youngest and oldest.
Orran began in 2000 as a haven for children with no safe place to spend their days, and for elders with no one left to spend them beside. Twenty-six years on, two centers in Yerevan and Vanadzor still keep the first promise: a warm meal, steady care, and a future worth working toward.
Founded 2000 · Yerevan (est. 2000) · Vanadzor (est. 2009)
Orran means haven, or cradle. The name was the whole plan.
ՍկիզբըThe beginning
It began with sixteen children and a rented room.
In April 2000, Armine and Raffi Hovannisian opened Orran in a single rented room in Yerevan, with sixteen children who had been spending their days on the street instead of in school. Within six months, forty children and twenty-six elders were coming through the door.
The dual mission held from the very first week. Children pulled back from begging and hunger, and elderly neighbors living alone, seated at the same tables, sharing the same meals. Not charity handed down from above, but a second home, open six days a week, for as long as anyone needed it.
Երկու տունThe centers
Two centers, one promise.
Yerevan
Est. 2000 · Yekmalyan StreetThe first center opened in a rented room on Yekmalyan Street in central Yerevan. It is still Orran's home, and still the door a child in crisis walks through first.
Vanadzor
Est. 2009 · Krikor & Anna KrikorianIn 2009 a second center opened in Vanadzor, in Armenia's north, endowed by and named for its benefactors, Krikor and Anna Krikorian. It brought the same warm table to a new region.
The Krikorians, Vanadzor benefactors
Երկու սերունդTwo generations
The young and the old, at the same table.
Figures published by Orran · audited annually · EIN 95-4841165
For the children
A hot meal to start the day, homework with professional teachers, arts, counseling, and apprenticeships that turn teenagers into earners. The goal is never dependence. It is a trade, a wage, and a life of their own.
For the elders
Company, warm meals, and medical help for neighbors who would otherwise spend their days alone. They sit at the same tables as the children, and both generations are better for it.
ՄիացիրJoin us
Help write the next chapter.
For twenty-six years, the tables have stayed set because people who never met these children decided they mattered. A single dollar feeds a child for a day. Your gift keeps the door open.
$1 feeds a child for a day · EIN 95-4841165 · US tax-deductible