FAR provides short-term emergency relief and implements long-term programs for the economic growth and social development of Armenia. It helps the most vulnerable segments of the population - children and the elderly - and prepares the youth and professionals to drive the country's new democratic state. Headquartered in New York City, FAR has three offices in Armenia and Karabagh and more than 150 full-time employees. It implements a wide range of programs, from operating daily soup kitchens and summer camps to providing educational scholarships and scientific grants to building irrigation systems. FAR's programs include one-time reconstruction projects as well as ongoing projects, like the Vanadzor Old Age Home and the Children's Reception and Orientation Center.
FAR’s Mission
FAR is dedicated to honoring the past, empowering the present and ensuring the future for people in Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Javakhk, Georgia. FAR gives hope, guidance and opportunity to those in need, empowering them to create a better present and helping them pave the way to a stronger future.
FAR Locations
Headquartered in New York, FAR also has four offices in Armenia, with its head office in Yerevan. Eighty percent of FAR’s 100 staff members are based in the field, including Gyumri, Yerevan, Berd and Vanadzor.
What They Do
FAR caters its general relief and development programs to the changing needs of the people of Armenia. Currently, FAR concentrates its efforts on humanitarian aid, social and economic opportunity and development, child protection, healthcare and education. Since its inception, FAR has implemented more than 250 relief, social, educational and cultural projects valued at over $300 million.
FAR’s Origins
In response to the 1988 earthquake, which devastated Gyumri and Spitak, several members of the Armenian community rushed to help with relief efforts. Their timely assistance grew into something much bigger – an organization aimed at empowering Armenians to build a better future for themselves and their nation. FAR was reorganized into a private voluntary organization and recognized as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit by the IRS in March 1993.
FAR
The Armenian diaspora plays a tremendous role in helping to modernize this fledgling nation, which is still rising from the ashes of the Soviet Union. Through FAR, support from the diaspora has housed thousands of families, fed hundreds of thousands more, and trained Armenia’s next generation of scientists, doctors, business leaders and other professionals.
