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Positive News From Armenia: It Is Better To Light a Candle Than to C

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  • Positive News From Armenia: It Is Better To Light a Candle Than to C

    Positive News From Armenia: It Is Better To Light a Candle Than to
    Curse the Darkness

    Friday, January 2nd, 2015
    http://asbarez.com/130375/positive-news-from-armenia-it-is-better-to-light-a-candle-than-to-curse-the-darkness/

    Karin Donoyan in her office

    BY ARMINE KOUNDAKJIAN


    There is an abundance of fowl talk and malice about our Homeland
    Armenia, which is sometimes justified and sometimes not so. Hereby I
    would like to report about a very positive educational and
    constructive TV program which you can watch every Sunday afternoon on
    Public H-1 channel. This program is called "HAY ASPET" is a general
    knowledge competition game between students.

    The studio and set of the television program


    Since 2006 the Hye Aspet Foundation under the leadership of
    journalist, scenarist Mrs. Karin Donoyan established a school with the
    same name, and started this educational patriotic and Armenology
    oriented pedagogic game. Her ultimate goal is to raise knowledgeable,
    well rounded conscious future citizens of Armenia. During my
    conversation / interview with her, I reiterated, that being a mere
    consumer person is not what our homeland needs. A consumer of goods
    can live anywhere, what we need is a concerned citizenry who cares
    about Armenia. A citizen who loves his/her country and serves in all
    capacity. I am sure that the graduates of the Hye Aspet School that
    she has established, will just be that kind of youth.

    She wants her students to be armed with worldly knowledge, and have
    super awareness, in order to resist and fight the destructive foreign
    forces that are deliberately employing anti- Armenian policies. That
    is powers who do not have our best interests at heart. Karin Donoyan's
    journalistic career includes series of scenarios for TV, fifteenth
    anniversary of the Armenian Arm Forces, and Monte Melkonian's 50th.
    anniversary celebration. Currently she is working on songs dedicated
    to the ancient city of Ani, which will be performed with dances
    choreographed by Martin Aharonian.

    This game show is filmed at the professionally set up studio located
    on the first floor of the Hye Aspet school site, which is a large two
    story building on Arshagoonyantz Ave. Every day 35 select,
    highly-motivated youngsters attend classes. These children have gone
    through vigorous exams prior to admission. On Saturdays, 80 select
    students attend the school for the entire day with a one hour
    nutritious lunch break. The director-principal Donoyan hopes to expand
    the school facilities so she can accept a much larger group of daily
    students. These students are being taught by hand picked master
    teachers.

    Every week 11 students from the Republic's 105 schools come to this
    school site to participate in the competition game. Up until today a
    total of one million students have participated. Prior to the game she
    sends them relevant books to study, along with CD's and DVD's. The
    students have 2 months to prepare the materials. Three groups
    designated by the Armenian flag colors, red, blue and orange compete
    against each other. At the end of school year, the group that has
    earned the highest score takes a week long fully paid for trip to
    historic Western Armenia.

    In addition to the students, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of The
    Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh also participate.
    Additionally, up to date, 18 military units from Artsakh and 30
    military units from the R. of A. have participated. The entire program
    costs 20 million Dram which is provided by the RA federal government.
    Every week the winning teams receive gifts donated by the Pan Armenian
    Congress and other donors.

    One of the classrooms


    The school's staff is composed of 27 persons, including office
    workers, the cook the dietician the librarian, the gardener etc.
    Parallel with the Republic's standard curriculum, the school offers
    languages i.e. Russian, English and Turkish, epic stories, proverbs,
    fairy tales and sayings. The classes end at 5 p.m. All teachers are
    certified experts in their fields. There is 70 million Dram provided
    by the Department of Education and Ministry of Sciences, The defense
    department kicks in another 10-15 million Dram. These funds are also
    used to organize camping trips to the various scenic regions of the
    Republic such as, Gumri, Lori, Artsakh, Sunik, Tavoosh etc. Every year
    on the occasion of the Republic's Independence Day on September 21 St.
    the students do mountain climbing to Mt. Aragats, Ajdahak and other
    peaks.

    "We are raising a group of small brave and promising soldiers. We
    rejuvenate our national ethnic holidays and traditional festivals,"
    says Karin Donoyan.

    The author with Donoyan


    Furure Plans: Mrs. Donoyan is planning a Flash Mob with 1800 Hye Aspet
    graduates on the occasion of the 100 memorial of the Genocide at the
    ancient city of Ani. With the help of RA government, she is planning
    to march to various regions of the country with 600-800 Hye Aspet
    students. There is another interesting plan brewing in her mind, i.e.
    to carry out an international signature drive to

    UNESCO protesting about the deliberate distortions and defacing that
    is happening in Ani under the pretense of reconstruction of that
    city's ancient ruins. The electronic address for the protest letters
    is "armcongress.am". Turkish government has brought in Georgian pseudo
    experts for the renovation job. It is very obvious that these
    "experts" are erasing every trace of its Armenian origin.

    After the above interview I sat thru the classes, then I visited the
    cafeteria during the lunch hour. The kitchen was clean and fully
    equipped. I saw the storage rooms of the gifts and uniforms that are
    worn during the game's broadcast. At the end of our talk, Mrs. Donoyan
    gave me a very nice gift in the form of a globe in Armenian. This gift
    was in appreciation for last year's donation of several dozens of my
    educational grammar game called "Armenian Homonyms." This same gift is
    presented to an outstanding participant every week.

    I left the school site very impressed and happy for having such an
    outstanding model institution. Anyone who has watched this TV program
    has marveled at the ability of the participants whose ages range from
    children as young as 8-9 to high school age. Many times the excellent
    quality of their spoken language can put some grown-ups to shame. The
    viewers have an opportunity to learn a lot of interesting facts such
    as, Armenian and world history , geography, grammar, music, Garegin
    Nejdeh's teachings, military laws , science, biography of royal
    dynasties, etc.

    Let's wish more power to Karin Donoyan, to her dream of having a
    larger school and more facilities. In my opinion, the only draw back
    is that sometimes the Sunday broadcast time of 1:45 becomes pre empted
    by other events. For example last Sunday because of a football game
    broadcast, the HYE ASPET started at 7p.m. in the evening.


    From: Baghdasarian
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