Sara Corning. Photo courtesy of the Sara Corning Society
BY RUPEN JANBAZIAN
Born in the village of Chegoggin, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1872, Nurse Sara Corning made it her life’s mission to help others. In her mid-twenties, she moved to the United States for training and worked in New England for almost 20 years, before returning to Nova Scotia to help the 10,000 victims of the Halifax Explosion.
In 1918, at the age of 46, Sara was certified by the American Red Cross and joined Near East Relief — an organization created to help civilians affected by the Great War. Landing in Constantinople (Istanbul) soon after, she helped rescue and care for thousands of Armenian and Greek orphans, often risking her life in the process, for more than a decade.
In 2016, nearly a century after Corning’s heroic decision to dedicate her life to help genocide survivors, David and Jennifer Chown of Nova Scotia founded the Sara Corning Society, which honors the nurse’s life and humanitarian work. A number of activities honoring Corning, including the unveiling of a statue dedicated to her, will be taking place this weekend in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
I recently spoke with David and Jennifer to learn more about what is in store.
Rupen Janbazian: How did the idea of establishing the Society come about?
Jennifer Chown: As we became more aware of Sara’s Red Cross volunteer service in Armenia, the former Ottoman Empire, and Greece, we gradually realized how significant her service turned out to be. From 1919 to 1930, she saved and cared for thousands of orphaned children and adult refugees.
R.J.: How did you two get involved?
J.C.: I reached out to the mayor of Yarmouth to suggest that a street be named in honor of Sara Corning. In meeting with other interested individuals, we agreed that Sara was as deserving of a statue as any war hero or humanitarian. The Sara Corning Society was formed not long after that, with 12 members.
R.J.: How is the Society governed and run? Does it have a paid staff, or is it run strictly by volunteers?
J.C.: We are a not-for-profit corporation made up of 12 members in Yarmouth, Dartmouth and Fall River, Nova Scotia. My husband and I are the founders and co-chairs.
Sara Corning. Photo courtesy of the Sara Corning Society
R.J.: Tell us how the idea of erecting a monument in the humanitarian’s honor transpired.
J.C.: A statue seemed to best suit how to honor Sara’ s memory, because it underscores the importance of her story for this generation, as well as the one she helped to care for —including the generations yet to come. A timeless story of someone who stepped out of their comfort zone to help others. This is worth preserving in a lasting way. It also helps to uncover a relatively unknown historical connection between Canada and Armenia — with opportunities for even greater collaboration now. We hope there will be a Canadian embassy established in Armenia soon.
R.J.: How was the site chosen?
David Chown: There were several sites offered but this site was special for several reasons. First of all, her archival holdings are in the adjacent museum. The statue site is where the Zion Baptist Church once stood — a church, which Sara would have attended, like a “mother church” to smaller local Baptist churches — but it was recently demolished due to structural weakness.
In a sacred way, Sara’s statue will now bring a healing presence to the site for local residents. The Yarmouth County Museum and Archives has been a great partner with the Sara Corning Society in efforts to bring this together so we are pleased that the statue will now be owned by them.
R.J.: Tell us a little about the artist commissioned to create the statue.
D.C.: Renowned artist and sculptor Garen Bedrossian from Montreal and Yerevan has invested his heart and soul into this statue. We can feel the heartbeat of Armenia in this initiative — when he sculpted and formed Sara’s image in the city where she first arrived in 1919 to help set up orphanages and hospitals for the thousands of orphans at that time. Garen’s work reflects his Armenian roots and Sara would have been deeply touched that someone from the country, and people she came to know so well, created a statue in her honor 100 years later.
J.C.: We would also like to acknowledge the generous donors of the statue, Simon and Maral Hasserjian of Toronto, whose vision to show their gratitude for Sara’s service on behalf of Armenians has now brought our communities together in a deeply personal and beautiful way.
R.J.: A host of activities honoring Corning, including the unveiling of the statue, will be taking place this weekend. Tell us more about what is planned.
J.C.: The weekend of commemorating Sara Corning will begin on September 13 with a staged reading of a play titled “Memories of Sara Corning” written by Christine Bolger and performed by Martha Irving. The statue of Sara Corning with children will be unveiled at 1 p.m. on September 14 at the Yarmouth County Museum lawn. The Sara Corning Commemorative Dinner will be held that evening at the Rodd Grand Hotel. Other events include an art show at the Waterfront Gallery and a workshop at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Yarmouth branch. Additional details of the events are on our Facebook page.
Sculptor Garen Bedrossian. Photo courtesy of AV Production
R.J.: It is well known that Corning was quite humble — so much so that those who knew her well didn’t know the extent to which she affected humanity. If alive today, do you think she would want to be honored and recognized in such grandiose fashion or would she perhaps feel uncomfortable getting all this attention?
J.C.: When Sara arrived home from the Near East, she would have been sensitive to the orphans that she cared for. There were fears of reprisals at that time and she would want to protect them by being silent. As a result, few Nova Scotians have known about her. Also, in any theater of war or post-war eras, it was difficult to describe what those who served would have witnessed and she would have seen the worst of humanity as well as the best of humanity — all at the same time. She was a strong woman with strong faith, there is no doubt of that. She would not have sought recognition as she will be receiving today, but there is no question that she would be pleased — no, elated — to know that people from her area of birth are meeting and developing friendships with the descendants of the ancestors who she would have helped to rescue and care for. We believe she would be very pleased and honored to know this.
R.J.: Any future plans for the Society?
D.C.: We are working through a lengthy process to have Sara Corning named as a National Historic Person by Parks Canada. We are seeking funding support for a nurses’ scholarship in Sara Corning’s name at the Yarmouth campus of the Dalhousie School of Nursing in Yarmouth. A small memorial community park in the tiny Chegoggin village where Sara was raised and later where she retired is being planned to honor Sara’s memory. It is adjacent to the cemetery where she is buried which is also near her home.
J.C.: In addition, the Town of Yarmouth and the Armenian Ambassador to Canada are interested in pursuing a sister-city partnership between Yarmouth and a municipality in Armenia.
D.C.: We see opportunities for initiating Corning Conferences in a world that needs to learn more about genocide education. Sara herself once wrote: “We believe that education is what all nations need to advance.”
The Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education in Toronto, founded by Raffi Sarkissian and named after Sara, has made great strides in introducing genocide education into the school curriculum in Ontario. We would like to see further outreach for this nationwide. Including speaking engagements about Sara Corning, the research is ongoing and we have additional projects, which are in the works. Her story reaches across a broad spectrum of topics, which are all relevant today.
Car importers oppose relocation of vehicles customs office to Gyumri
ArmInfo. Car importers – individuals oppose the relocation of vehicles customs office to Gyumri. Today, on September 11, they gathered at the government building and demand a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan.
As Tigran Hovhannisyan, chairman of the organization for drivers protection, stated in an interview with reporters, what is the point of transferring the customs clearance of vehicles to faraway Gyumri if import of cars into Armenia decreases from the beginning of next year. “According to the official information of the SRC, vehicles customs will work at best from mid-October. Meanwhile, given the entry into force of the EAEU customs regulations in 2020, the flow of car imports will soon stop. And even if we import from Russia, which is also a question, then this import is not subject to customs clearance, “he explained.
Thus, as the importers said, it turns out that the country’s authorities force people to go this far in the winter months only for customs clearance. In addition, they doubt that the city of Gyumri itself will cope with such a stream. “Every day, about 1 thousand cars go through customs clearance. Can you imagine what volumes are involved? What traffic jams will be there,” Hovhannisyan asked. According to him, if you want to develop the region, then let the authorities begin with themselves – the president, government, parliament and others government agencies will relocate to Gyumri.
Tigran Hovhannisyan also noted that today about 10 thousand cars are in ports of different countries. According to him, in the Georgian port of Poti there are three ships loaded with cars bought by the Armenians, but they are not unloaded. “We still need to change the steering wheel from right to left, and it will take another two months. 10 thousand people after January will not be able to deliver their cars to Armenia,” he concluded.
Protesters were invited to meet with the adviser to the prime minister. They rejected the proposal, saying that as large taxpayers they have the right to be heard, if not at the level of the prime minister, then at least the deputy prime minister.
Earlier, ArmInfo reported that from January 1, 2020, new customs rates on cars imported into the republic from third countries will begin to be applied in Armenia. These rates will be in tune with the tariffs set for all EAEU countries. As a result, if in 2018 about 67 thousand cars were imported, then by the end of July this year the figure reached about 70 thousand. In this regard, at the customs clearance points, in particular, in Yerevan Noragavit, kilometer-long queues were formed.
According to the SRC, as of July, about 700 cars were registered daily in Armenia, of which about 500 were registered in the Noragavit village. Since August 1, a seven-day work schedule has been set in the Noragavit vehicles customs departments. However, for a comprehensive solution to the problem, the Armenian Prime Minister instructed the SRC to relocate the vehicles customs office to Gyumri, where all necessary conditions and appropriate infrastructures for quick and easy registration of cars will be created.
The program to create a new center of foreign economic activity in Gyumri, including customs clearance of cars, was estimated at 2.2 billion drams. Construction is planned on the territory of 21.5 hectares owned by the Ministry of Defense. 4.5 hectares from this territory will be allocated for the establishment of a customs and police service center. Cabinet has already allocated 966.4 million drams for the construction. As the head of SRC David Ananyan recently stated, although this is difficult to implement, the construction of a car customs will be completed by October 11.
Sports: Italy struggles to beat 10-man Armenia in Euro qualifier
Armenian university students protest interim rector’s resignation
A group of students of the Armenian State University of Economics have been staging a protest outside the university building since Monday morning demanding the return of resigned interim rector Ruben Hayrapetyan to office.
Hayrapetyan stepped down in late August after being accused of plagiarism in his PhD dissertation by some lectures of the university. Diana Galoyan is set to perform the interim rector’s duties after his resignation.
The students on the strike claim that the discrimination against the former university head and calls for his resignation ‘undermine’ a whole system of reforms launched by Hayrapetyan.
Several lecturers of the university also joined the protesting students, with one of them hailing the reforms initiated by the dismissed rector as a ‘necessity’ for the university.
3 out of 13 Armenian citizens hospitalized after Georgia passenger van crash in critical condition
3 out of 13 Armenian citizens hospitalized after Georgia passenger van crash in critical condition
11:24,
YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s healthcare ministry provides information about the crash of a passenger van traveling from Yerevan to Georgia’s Batumi.
According to preliminary reports, 15 of the injured are citizens of Armenia, 2 of them have died.
13 passengers were hospitalized. 3 of them are in critical condition, 4 are in moderate condition and 6 were discharged after receiving relevant medical aid.
“The healthcare ministry is in touch with the Georgian partners regarding the transportation of the citizens to Armenia and organization of the medical aid”, the ministry said in a statement.
A passenger van traveling from Armenia’s capital of Yerevan to Georgia’s Batumi crashed on August 31 near Georgian capital city of Tbilisi at around 02:00-03:00.
Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan
Are the risks manageable? Pashinyan held a consultation on the “Amulsar” issue
- 21.08.2019
- Armenia:
- arm
- rus
A little while ago I held a consultation on the “Amulsar” issue. The representative of “Lydian” also participated. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.
“I was interested in the possible stages of the designed process, tangibly, the possible management methods of possible risks and the leverage that the government has.
We continue to work on this very important topic,” he said in his post.
Pashinyan also informs that the government staff sends the conclusion of “Ellard” to the Ministry of Environment.
“Today, the government staff is sending Ellard’s conclusion to the Ministry of Environment with the following instructions.
To find out whether there are data in the conclusion that, according to Armenian legislation, create the need to carry out a new environmental impact assessment for the operation of the Amulsar mine,” the Prime Minister said in a Facebook post.
Armenian law enforcement agencies have enough leverage to effectively monitor development of mines
Government releases recap of July activities
Government releases recap of July activities
15:31, 3 August, 2019
YEREVAN, AUGUST 3, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia has released a recap of its activities in the month of July.
In a video released online, the government pointed out several major accomplishments during the period.
As part of an investment program six companies were granted customs duty exemptions. These companies are expected to invest 8,000,000 dollars and will open 108 workplaces.
In July, the government doubled monetary awards for veterans – setting it to 100,000 drams a month instead of the previous 50,000. It also decided to raise pensions 10% effective from January 1, 2020.
The government also adopted the 2020-2022 mid-term spending program based on having an inclusive, competitive and export-oriented economy in conformity with high environmental, industrial and technological standards.
Another noteworthy event was the signing with Singapore of a double tax treaty and an agreement on preventing tax evasion.
At this moment, 165km of roads are under re-construction, 19km is already finished. A total of 330 kilometers of road will be reconstructed within 2019.
Other activities are featured in the video.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Over 400 schoolchildren participate in
Over 400 schoolchildren participate in “Armath” technocamp held with support of Ucom
17:24,
YEREVAN, JULY 22, ARMENPRESS. On July 1-19, the college named after Monte Melkonian in Dilijan hosted the two flows of the participants of “Armath” summer technocamp for children aged 10-13 and 14-17 respectively. In total, over 400 schoolchildren from all provinces of Armenia, including Artsakh and Javakhk, were hosted at the camp. Among technocamp participants there were also children who had arrived in Armenia in the framework of “Ari Tun” program, Ucom told Armenpress.
On July 10-19, the second phase of the camp intended for children aged between 14 and 17 took place. Over 200 schoolchildren and 13 team leaders from all provinces of Armenia participated in the second phase of the camp.
At this phase of “Armath” technocamp the participants learned to create a smart management system of LED lights with the help of RaspberryPi platform and using Python programming language as well as receive various data through sensors. They also learned to assemble and program robots. The ultimate goal set for the teams was to design a robot corresponding to the standards of Robotex Armenia competition and able to find solutions to problems.
In addition to robotics, the second phase of the camp also offered cultural, sports and entertainment components to participants. “Shtigen Kids” project manager Ani Aghajanyan visited the children at the camp and in the framework of the project had a presentation on renewable energy.
At the end of the second phase of “Armath” technocamp, a final competition with participation of campers took place during which the teams were to solve the following problems: the robot created by the teams was to follow road markings, take and place a conditional trash bin using its hand, make conditional parking at dedicated areas and cross the crossroad equipped with traffic lights when the light was green. The problem was to be solved only through automatic management. Once the robot was ready, the teams could not interfere with its actions. Arduino and SeRob platforms as well as C++ and Snap programming languages were used.
“Here we have children who have attended “Armath” engineering laboratory for only a month and are already able to solve complex problems usually assigned to university students. At their age we could only dream of creating and programming robots with our own hands, and now with the support of Ucom both girls and boys have the chance to acquire engineering knowledge and creative skills, which cannot but make us happy”, said Tigran Safaryan, Marketing and Communications Director at Ucom.
Of 13 teams that took part in the competition, the winner was the 6th team among the members of which there were students of “Armath” engineering laboratories operating in Ashnak, Arteni, Ranchpar and Aragats. The robot designed by this team was able to meet almost all the goals set for it and scored the highest number of points. All the members of the team received smart watches from Ucom. Hayk Sargsyan, the best member of the team, received an electric scooter, and the team leader Slavik Israyelyan – a tablet.
The 13th team took the second place with very small difference in scores. The team was composed of Armath students from Noratus and Gavar. The best member of the team Vahe Davtyan received a smart watch from Ucom, and other members of the team – 16 GB memory sticks from the UATE. The second team solved the problem through Arduino (C++) platform and was the best at crossing the crossroads.
Schoolchildren from Yerevan, Armavir, Ranchpar, Norakert, Damala, Karvachar, Arteni, Agarak (Syunik), Agarak (Aragatsotn), Mastara, Ashnak, Agarakavan, Kaqavadzor, Dilijan, Sotk, Tchambarak, Gavar, Noratus, Akunk, Gyumri, Saratak, Haykavan(Shirak), Vahramaberd, Hadrut, Kajaran, Kovsakan, Askeran, Martakert, Sos, Lorut, Arevatsag, Mets Ayrum, Vanadzor, Aygepar, Choratan, Ijevan, Artashat, Hartavan, Lusagyugh, Berdzor, Martuni (Artsakh), Ishkhanadzor, Vardenis, Drakhtik, Vahan, Katnaghbyur, Aparan, Berdavan, Nerkin Tsaghkavan, Lusagyugh, Hartavan, Heshtia (Javakhk) and Tumanyan participated in the camp.
This year, “Armath” technocamp was supported by the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), Support to Javakhk Foundation (STJ), Instigate Mobile, Cronimet Mining, Ucom, “Sahman (Border)” NGO, Artsakhbank, World Vision Armenia, Armenian Educational Foundation, “Vardanants Knights” organization and Nazaryan Educational Foundation.