Armenian National Anthem (Our Fatherland) Mer Hayrenik (Մեր Հայրենիք)

I can hear it a million different ways and it is still beautiful. This is the GREAT Armenians of Canada's St. Mary Apostolic Church. Armenian Canadians have done much for orphanages and the children of Armenia. Sing it proud and teach your children.

Armenia National Anthem Lyrics


Armenia

Mer hayrenik', Azat, Ankakh,
Vor aprel eh tareh tar,
Yoor vordik'e ard kanchum eh Azat,
Ankakh Hayastan.

Aha', yeghpayr, kez mi drosh,
Vor im dzerkov gortsetsi,
Gishernere yes koon cheghah,
Artasukov lvatsi.

Nayir nran yerek guynov,
Nvirakan mer nshan,
Togh poghpoghi t'shnamu dem,
Togh misht pandsah Hayastan.

Amenayn tegh mah'e mi eh,
Mard mi angam pit merni,
Bayts yerani ovr yur azgi
Azatutyan k'e zohvi.

English Translation
Our fatherland, free and independent,

That lived from century to century

His children are calling

Free independent Armenia.

(repeat previous two lines)


Here brother, for you a flag,

That I made with my hands

Nights I didn't sleep,

With tears I washed it.

(repeat previous two lines)


Look at it, 3 colours

It's our gifted symbol.

Let it shine against the enemy.

Let Armenia always be glorius.

(repeat previous two lines)


Everywhere death is the same

Everyone dies only once

But lucky is the one

Who is sacrificed for his nation.

(repeat previous two lines)

(repeat first verse)

Armenian Adoption- Sponsor a Child to the AYF Camp and win Ipad!!!

Awesome camp, please donate or consider working it.
our Armenian Youth Federation is strong and a fun group to belong to.

Armenian Adoption - Adoption Nation

Excellent book with updates featured in the Wall Street Journal today. I encourage everyone to read this important book.


http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2011/06/23/the-changing-world-of-adoption/

A new book offers solid information that is often missing from the headlines — including facts about the impact of the Internet on adoption, the decline in international adoptions and the rise in foster-care adoptions.
In an updated edition of “Adoption Nation,” Adam Pertman, executive director of the nonprofit Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute and an adoptive father himself, shows how patterns of adoption in the U.S. have turned upside down. Once-hot international adoptions have slowed amid rising nationalism, efforts to keep children with biological parents and fears of corruption, he writes. After peaking at 22,884 adoptions in 2004, U.S. adoptions of children from other countries fell 44% to 12,753 in 2009. Meanwhile, adoptions of foster children rose 53% to 55,000 in 2008 from 36,000 a decade earlier, amid policy changes and increased demand by parents. The website, AdoptUsKids.org, is an excellent resource on foster-care adoptions.

Armenian Adoption Adventure- Ukraine Adoptions put on hold

This was just sent by friends from PEAR, there are a few parents who have adopted Armenian Ukrainian children.
Sad news for prospective parents waiting in Ukraine. I am told there will be many changes and adoption reforms.

Friday, June 17, 2011
DOS Adoption Alert: Ukraine Family Code Amendments and temporary suspension on adoptions to take effect on July 11, 2011

June 15, 2011
Alert: Ukrainian Family Code Amendments and temporary suspension on adoptions to take effect on July 11, 2011
The Ukrainian State Department on Adoptions (SDA) informed the US Embassy this morning that beginning July 11 SDA will no longer have the authority to process adoption cases. This will likely result in a temporary suspension of adoptions from Ukraine. The Ministry of Social Policy will take over as the new adoption authority in Ukraine, but does not yet have Cabinet approval to create a staff and begin processing cases. The Ministry does not yet know when they will be able to resume adoption processing. The amendments to the Ukrainian Family Code mentioned in the previous adoption alert will also go into effect on July 11.

We will ask the Ukrainian government to resume adoptions as quickly as possible. We will also continue to encourage the Ministry of Social Policy to protect adoptions where U.S. prospective adoptive parents have already been approved by the SDA to adopt a particular child.

According to SDA, there are now 139 U.S. families registered with the SDA, some of them already in-country. We will be following new developments closely to understand how it will affect the families currently in process and will be posting relevant updates. In that respect. we recommend that all American families that are currently in Ukraine or have appointments with SDA during the next few weeks send their contact information to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine’s Adoption Unit at: kyivadoptions@state.gov. Families should contact their local adoption service provider for further updates and details.


http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=alerts&alert_notice_file=ukraine_2

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Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/


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Armenian Adoption Adventure- Questions to ask your Adoption Agency

These agency questions are lengthy and should be asked. You are about to spend a great amount of money and time asking questions before you enter into a business contract is a good idea.

Interview Questions For International Adoption Agencies
•Do not e-mail this list to agencies you are considering. It is the conversation where you will pick up on the personality and philosophy of the agency.

•These interviews take time, and it is only fair that you make an appointment so the agency can have the right person speak with you and that the person will have allocated enough time.

•When you interview an agency, take notes and label them according to the question you are asking.

•When you have finished the interview, take the time right then to analyze if you would enjoy working with this agency. What was their attitude and how helpful were they?


Country specific:

1.How long have you been placing children from the country I am considering?

2.Are you licensed/accredited in the country I am considering? (If you don’t know if required, check the country charts listed under adoption)

3.How many children did you place from this country last year? The year before?

4.How many children of the age and general health I am looking for did you place last year? The year before?

5.How many regions within the country do you work in? Or, how many baby homes or orphanages within the country do you work in. (This question is not applicable to China and some other countries.)

6.Do you have someone on staff that is fluent in the language of the country?

7.How are the children cared for in the country prior to adoption?

8.If foster care, do foster parents receive any training and oversight?

9.What are the conditions in the orphanages? How many children per caregiver?

10.Does someone from your agency personally visit the orphanages from which you place children? (This is not allowed in all countries) If not, how are you informed about the quality of care?

11.If birth mothers are identified, what services are provided to the birth mother? Counseling?

12.Do you have staff in the country I am considering? Do you have subcontractors?

13.Do you use facilitators? What services does the facilitator provide? How often do you communicate with the facilitator? How much supervision do you provide? Is the facilitator paid a fee for services or paid on a contingency basis for child referred or adoption completed? How long have you been using this facilitator? What are the names of the in-country facilitators? (not all agencies reveal the names)

14.What humanitarian services do you provide in this country?

15.How are children identified for adoption?

16.What is the average length of time for a referral of the age, gender and health of the child we are seeking? What is the longest you have experienced within the last year?

17.What happens if we decline a referral that is offered? How soon can we expect to get another referral?

18.What is the average length of time after referral before I would likely travel to pick up my child? What is the longest you have experienced within the last year?

19.If this is a two-trip country, what’s the average length of time between trips? What is the longest you have experienced within the last year?

20.What was the average length of time families were in country last year? What was the longest you have experienced recently?

21.If we decline a referral once we are in the country, what happens? What are the chances of getting another referral while we are in country that meets our requirements? (This only applies to certain countries, see country charts)

22.How often do you send dossiers (collection of documents fulfilling the governmental requirements for adoption) to the country? Once a week? Once a month? (This is only applicable to certain countries, such as China)

23.What has been your experience with placing children from this country with parents who have been treated for depression or alcoholism or who have an arrest record?

24.What is the total estimated cost of adopting from this country? (not just fees paid to the agency, but what is the total out of pocket expenses families have paid at the end of the adoption)

25.If cash payments are required in country, do you have a mechanism for transferring funds to the country rather than have parents carry large amounts of cash?


Agency Specific:

1.What state or states are you licensed in?

2.How long have you been in business?

3.How many full time staff do you have? How many part time staff or subcontractors?

4.How long has the staff been with the agency? Ask specific to the program you will be using.

5.If it is a very small organization, what are the plans if one of the key personnel is unavailable for a period of time?

6.How do you communicate with prospective adoptive parents?

7.What are your office hours?

8.Whom would we contact when we have questions? Will one person be assigned to us? How many cases/clients does this person handle?

9.Do you have a policy to return phone calls within a set period of time? How long should I expect to wait for a reply from an email or phone message?

10.Are you seeking or do you have Hague Treaty accreditation or approval?

11.Do you have restrictions on age, marital status, gender selection, religion, or family size that are not part of the country’s requirements. (Keep in mind that this is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you are excluded because of an agency imposed restriction you want to know that up front so you can choose a different agency or country.)

12.How much medical, social, and psychological information will we receive on the child? Can additional information be obtained? What steps do you usually take to get additional information?

13.Do you encourage families to get an independent review of the medical records and pictures or videos (if available) by a pediatrician or an international adoption medical specialist?

14.How long do we have to decide on a referral? (You need at least a week or until you get a response from an international adoption medicine specialist.)

15.Do you ask clients to sign an Internet Confidentiality Agreement?

16.What is your refund policy at different stages in the process?

17.What is your policy on virtual twinning (adopting two unrelated children at the same time)? (if applicable)

18.What is your policy on continuing infertility treatments while pursuing an adoption? What is your policy if we become pregnant? (If applicable.)

19.Have you ever been disciplined or sanctioned by a government or legal entity?

20.How many of your placements in the last three years have fallen apart either before or after the adoption was finalized? (This statistic is one indication of how well an agency prepares families for adoption.)


Services:

1.How much help do you provide with the dossier (paperwork) preparation?

2.What travel arrangements do you make in country? To and from the country?

3.Do your families travel in groups to the country I am considering?

4.Who supports the families when they are in country? Are they employees of the agency? Subcontractors? How long have these people worked for your agency?

5.Do you have pre-adoption and post adoption support groups for parents either in person or online?

6.How many hours of parental education do you require? How is it offered? Do I have to attend classes in person? (Remember, you want an agency that wants to educate you.)

7.What post adoption services do you offer? Counseling for adoption related issues? Heritage camps/programs? Reunions? Parenting classes?

8.What type of support do you offer for families in the first six months home?


Please send:

1.An itemized list of all costs, fees, or expenses and when they are due. Make sure to include estimates for costs that are paid to others outside the agency (e.g. home study, document preparation, etc).

2.The latest audited financial statements and the internal financial report for last year.

3.Contracts, liability waivers, confidentiality agreements, or other paperwork that we will need to sign.

4.References (name, telephone number and email address) of families that adopted from the same country last year and adopted a child similar in age and health to what we are seeking.


Evaluation of Feel:

1.How thorough and honest were their answers?

2.How easy was it to talk with the agency contact?

3.Did I feel rushed?

4.Did I speak with the person I will primarily be working with?

5.How knowledgeable did they seem about adoption in general and adoptions from my country of choice?

6.Did it seem like they were more interested in my understanding what to expect or were they trying to sell me on their program by glossing over potential problems?

7.How clear was information on cost and waiting times? Did I have to dig to get this information?

8.How courteous were all the staff I spoke with?

9.How promptly were materials mailed and phone calls returned?

Armenian Adoption-Establishment of Children's ombudsmen insitutution in Armenia underway

There are many changes taking place with Children's rights issues and adoption of Armenian children. All will be for the good of the children of Armenia and supportive programs in place for all children particularly special needs.

http://www.panorama.am/en/society/2011/06/16/child-ombudsman/

A. Bakhshyan: “Establishment of Children’s ombudsmen institution in Armenia is underway”
“Under the Constitution, our state is limited to basic human and civil rights and freedoms as a directly applicable law. In this context, in 1992 Armenia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child assuming readiness to prioritize child protection issues and to include them into the national projects,” member of the Heritage parliamentary faction Anahit Bakhshyan said at the parliamentary conference of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe states on protection of the rights of vulnerable children.
The conference has been initiated by the National Assembly, UNICEF, jointly with the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Within the upcoming three days, delegates from different countries, deputies, ombudsmen, children’s rights experts and others will discuss everything directly concerning protection of children’s rights in the context of the parliament’s activities.
Mrs. Bakhshyan presented the delegates the development of the field in Armenia. Further, she reminded that in 1996, our country elaborated and adopted Children Rights law which stipulated the implementation of the Convention and our country’s commitments. However, “the lack of a comprehensive mechanism for the exercise of children’s rights in our country, just like in the whole world, was slowing down the process of complete protection of children’s rights. That’s why Armenia, just like the other Member States of the United Nations, elaborated a National Project on Protection of Children’s Rights for 2004-2015. This project aimed to introduce the new reform of the children’s rights protection field to secure the rights stipulated in the Convention,” she noted.

Besides, in 2005, under the order of Armenian Prime Minister, National Commission for Child Protection was established, as a mechanism to secure the state policy of children's rights and interests, immediately followed by opening of children’s ombudsman offices in the regions. In 2010, family, women and children protection offices were established, thus a children’s ombudsman three-level system was introduced in Armenia, including national, regional and communal levels.

"But we should emphasize that the three-level system is formal, and is not efficient, it is not a full mechanism of Children’s Ombudsman, because the system responds to the needs of the child only when the child is already in a difficult situation, while it should act as an early intervention and prevention mechanism. This is the problem and challenge for Armenia. In this respect, the National Assembly and the government as well as the international organizations and others have much to do," the MP said.
According to her, the most important role of the parliament is not only adoption of the laws and ratification of international conventions, but also adoption of mechanisms established by laws, by which the implementation of the laws is conditioned. The Parliament should pursue the establishment of the mechanism of independent monitoring of the Children’s Ombudsman implementation. And in that sense it is important that the creation and establishment of Children’s Ombudsman Institution serve as such mechanism, because: "Only in this case it will be possible to monitor the implementation of the national project of Children’s Ombudsman and to report it to the National Assembly."

By the way, the Children’s Ombudsman institution was expected to be established in Armenia in 2001, but the above mentioned three-level system was created instead, which in fact cannot be an independent mechanism for the implementation of the Convention.
Mrs. Bakhshyan added that today the establishment of this institution is already underway, it must be established within the Ombudsman's Office.
Norway is the country where the first Children's Ombudsman institution was established.
In addition to this, Mrs. Bakhshyan also presented the delegates other mechanisms of children’s ombudsman that operate in Armenia. For example, the mechanism required by the General Education law and ensuring the participation of parents, which is a contract between parents and school headmaster, which exactly stipulates the rights of the child, etc.

Armenia marks World Children Day

http://www.armradio.am/eng/news/?part=soc&id=20118

June 1st is observed as World Children’s Day. The World Conference for the Well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland proclaimed June 1 to be International Children's Day in 1925.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Childand opened it for signature on 20 November 1989. It came into force on 2 September 1990, after it was ratified by the required number of nations.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC, CROC, or UNCRC) is a human rights treaty setting out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Convention generally defines a child as any human being under the age of eighteen, unless an earlier age of majority is recognized by a country's law.

Armenia ratified the Convention in 1992. Besides, it adopted the Law on Children’s Rights in 1996.