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Towards the New Year before meeting with Santa, the grandparents living in nursing homes and orphanage children will come together for a couple of hours, bringing to life the "A Great Family" initiative.

The initiative belongs to the founders of the Germany-based “Armenian Armat” NGO, Anzhela Ghazaryan and Ani Dallakyan. It all started when they visited Internat School N 1 in Haghtanak district of Yerevan.

During the conversation the guests noticed the love and care of the elderly, which they for some reason could not convey to their grandchildren. The NGO founders noticed that the elderly feel a lack of family warmth, and decided to call to life the "A Great Family" initiative. The volunteers working for the NGO in Armenia are making the necessary preparations for the event. Among them Araks Babayan talked to the grandparents, inquiring what they would do if they lived with their grandchildren.

"If I had a grandchild, we would be doing embroidery, like this ... If I had a grandchild, I'd recite for them, but I would definitely do it better than now because I would not have any sorrow then... I used to be a  magician when I was young and now if I can recall it a little, maybe I can do it again "said the residents of the nursing home.

Araks Babayan says that among those living in the nursing home there were also grandparents who do have grandchildren, for example, a grandmother proudly said she has 5 children and 11 grandchildren.

"There were also elderly people who did not have grandchildren; there were some couples who got married in the internat and were living in the nursing home. Especially I was captured by grandmother Silva’s handworks. They were so beautiful that I thought no human hand could have touched them. I also remember the grandfather Navasard, a good-hearted person who likes reading and doing farming. Grandfather Robert told us that he liked to do magic, and promised to surprise us one day, "Araks Babayan told Panorama.am.

The first meeting of the grandparents and children living in the orphanage will take place on December 23, in Bari Tnak (Good House). The founder of "Bari Mama" (Kind Mum) NGO, Marina Adulyan, will select the children. Abakus-Yeraz Development Center will organize games that will be interesting for both the elderly and the children. The members of the Germany-based NGO have already taken care  of the financial part of the project. The meeting should be appropriate, there will be food and gifts. The average cost per person will be 15 euros.

"We plan to have 20 children and 20 grandparents to attend the meeting. Since this is the first meeting we have decided to involve more active, motivated people in the program. If the program succeeds, we will involve more people next time ", Anzhela Ghazaryan, one of the founding members of the “Hay Armat" told Panorama.am.

The Chairman of the "Bari Mama" NGO, Marina Adulyan, still is still in the process of choosing the children to attend the meeting. At the moment, the final interior works are being done in Bari Tnak. Starting from December 1, it will be a welcoming and warm.

This is what Bari Tnak’s event-platform will look like where you can organise events.