make preferableWith more than 100 beneficiaries, the charity soup kitchen of Arshavir and Paytsar Abrahamyans is the only one in the Arabkir district of Yerevan. For more than three decades, it has been operating at the same address, 49 Komitas Avenue, with the funds by the famous Russian Armenian businessman and philanthropist Ara Abrahamyan.
“After the 1988 Spitak earthquake, my father, Bagrat Asatryan, decided that he could help people, the displaced, and also those who suffered from the [Nagorno-Karabakh] war after that. And since 1993, with the mediation and sponsorship of Ara Abrahamyan, a soup kitchen has been operating to this day. We have about 120 beneficiaries who eat on site, or take their food with them. And there are also 20 families who do not have the ability or option to move; we take food—in the form of dry food—to their apartments once a month,” says Taron Asatryan, coordinator of this charity foundation-soup kitchen.
Everything in the menu is calculated so that the beneficiaries of this soup kitchen—the lonely elderly, the needy, and the disabled—receive the necessary daily dose of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.
The beneficiaries say they cannot imagine how they would survive without the food provided by this soup kitchen.
“The pension barely covers the utilities,” says Susanna Karapetyan, whose entire family, which has vision problems, uses this soup kitchen.
“This is a salvation. If a person does not come one day, he will remain hungry. It would be good if there were more benefactors like Ara Abrahamyan and helped those in need,” says Satik Sahakyan, the cook of this soup kitchen.
From Monday to Friday, the beneficiaries of this soup kitchen start their day here. Here they find not only hot food, but also human warmth. They talk about everyday problems, and remember their youth. The beneficiaries are all well known here, and people get worried when one of them is missing.
Supporters of this charitable initiative try to fill the daily lives of these people, who are left alone with old age due to various circumstances, with small joys. An amateur folk instrument group composed of musicians of different ages regularly rehearses at the Abrahamyans' soup kitchen, bringing joy to the beneficiaries on various occasions. An amateur folk instrument group composed of musicians of different ages regularly rehearses at the Abrahamyans' soup kitchen, delighting its beneficiaries on various occasions.
The history of soup kitchens as such began in Europe and the US in the 19th century, during the industrial revolution. Over time, doing charity in this way has become an integral part of Western business culture, which in turn instills traditions of charity in society, too. It is a common practice in the West that young people work as volunteers in such soup kitchens. In Armenia, unfortunately, soup kitchens founded by businessmen are rare. In our country, in general, soup kitchens are few, and those that exist are either under the jurisdiction of community municipalities, or were created on the initiative of the church or various NGOs.
The exact number of soup kitchens operating in the capital Yerevan and other parts of Armenia territory is unknown. Neither the Yerevan Municipality nor the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia keep such statistics.
According to the latest official data, the average monthly pension in Armenia is 49,000 drams, while the minimum monthly consumer basket is 75,811 drams per capita. You don’t need deep economic knowledge to figure out what can be in the diet of people who live on a pension and do not have the opportunity to make use of a soup kitchen.
Large investments are not needed to ensure a more dignified old age for such people. What the state cannot do, large businessmen can partially take on themselves and, following the example of Ara Abrahamyan, ultimately establish this culture of charity in Armenia.
