Newsletter: January 2022

by | Jun 23, 2023

Dear colleagues and friends

I hope you all had a peaceful, happy and healthy Christmas and New Year. Please find below our AAMA January newsletter:

  • A big thank you to all who responded with your pledges to the AAMA end of the year fundraising campaign. We received close to $50,000 of donations. This will help us continue with our various ongoing projects and plan new projects both in Armenia / Artsakh and New England. We cannot do all the work we do without your financial support. With gratitude!
  • One of our top priorities this year is finalize the preparations of the HBO infrastructure, put the machines to work, and operationalize the HBO programs both in Yerevan and Artsakh.
  • A second priority is to establish the primary health care program in Artsakh, and specifically in Martuni, in collaboration with the Tufenkian foundation.
  • Along the same lines, the AAMA has learned that COAF is considering expansion into Artsakh. We will continue to explore opportunities to collaborate with COAF both in the Armenian Marzes or in Artsakh to improve population health care and education in the region.
  • The AAMA sponsored 40Ft container from Partners in World Health with medical supplies worth over $450,000 has now reached its final destination. All medical supplies have been delivered to the following two hospitals in Armenia: Sourp Asdvadzamayr and the Traumatology and Orthopedics Center.
  • The AAMA student scholarship program has awarded a $2,000 scholarship to a medical student and two $1,500 scholarships to allied health care students. The scholarship recipients are Dikran Raffi Balian, Lilit Derkevorkian, and Grace DerBoghossian. Congratulations to all!
  • The AAMA grant program will soon be announcing two small grant opportunities for individuals or non-profits interested in doing health-care related projects in Armenia or Artsakh to apply to. One grant will offer $10,000 and the second will offer $5,000.
  • Keep on the look-out for the AAMA sponsored health fair. This will be a collaboration with Mount Auburn Hospital and will take place at ACEC. Date and time coming up sometime in May.
  • Vicken Babikian, an AAMA board member, in collaboration with the Armenia NIH, the Armenia Stroke Council, and Dr Zarmine Naccashian and her nursing group from Los Angeles has organized a stroke nurse educational course that is being given over 4 Saturdays in January for nurses in Armenia. If you are interested in participating, please reach out to Vicken.
  • The AAMA has facilitated the donation of $2,000 USD to Arevik Children’s hospital in Stepanakert (Artsakh) for the purchase of anti-epilepsy medications. This effort was made possible by Vicken Babikian and his Armenian Neurology physician group.
  • The AAMA continues to support UpToDate at Kanaker-Zeytun and Arabkir Hospitals, as well as the Mikaelyan institue.
  • Please visit our website at www.aamaboston.org and enjoy all the upgrades and new features that we have incorporated. For new or current members, we ask that you pay your dues through the website electronically ($150 for licensed practitioners, $75 for residents and fellows, free for all students). This will give you access to other clinicians, volunteer opportunities, discounts on events, and other. Remember that the AAMA is a non-profit organization. All your donations, including payment of your dues, are tax-deductible. Most of your paid dues go to fund medical student and allied health student scholarships. We are also on FB, Instagram, and Twitter.
  • Another important reminder that we (the AAMA) are registered with the Amazon Smile program. Every time you purchase an item from Amazon, provided you choose AAMA as your non-profit from the Amazon Smile website, a certain percentage of your purchase gets donated to AAMA. We now have over 230 members / friends on this mailing list. The dollars add up. If you have not already, please consider making use of this program while shopping on Amazon.
  • If any of you are interested in being more actively involved with any of the AAMA activities above, or should you have an idea / project you would like to undertake or a donation to make, please reach out to me and we will get you more involved and support you as best we can.

With respect

Vatche’