Source:fullercenter.org
With the help of ardent supporters in the United States and partnerships with such groups as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Viva-MTS, the Fuller Center for Housing of Armenia managed to not only continue building and serving families through a pandemic and armed conflict with Azerbaijan in 2020, but it had its most productive year ever with 196 families served.
That success pushed the Fuller Center of Armenia over the 1,000-house milestone, making it The Fuller Center’s first covenant partner — in the United States or international — to surpass that milestone. In fact, with the dedication of a new home for the Harutyunyan family in Lor, Syunik Province, that total now stands at 1,018.
“Despite that almost all of our partner families had someone in the front line fighting for peace, fighting for all of us to live in peace and have a homeland to live and pass to many generations, there wasn’t a day we stopped building homes,” Fuller Center of Armenia President Ashot Yeghiazaryan said in a statement. “And we will continue building and making our homeland a place to live in. We have to build more and more during these hard times.”
The country has been one of the most popular destinations for The Fuller Center’s Global Builders program, but the pandemic meant a loss of hundreds of volunteers from the United States helping their work, forcing them to rely on the efforts of their local teams.
“Due to the pandemic, we did not host any Global Builders teams,” Yeghiazaryan said. “We missed everyone a lot and kept praying for everyone to stay safe and healthy.”
“Fuller Center Armenia never ceases to astound us,” said Ryan Iafigliola, The Fuller Center’s Vice President of International Programs. “A thousand homes is truly outstanding and something to celebrate! Even better, we expect them to reach the next thousand twice as fast, and now they want to reach out to support other Fuller Centers around the world.”