CYMA - Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia

CYMA - Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia - is a volunteer run humanitarian and student exchange program in support of the Republic of Armenia created by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and Ronald Alepian.

Program Description

CYMA, the Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia, is a Canadian, volunteer led humanitarian and exchange program focused on redevelopment, community projects, humanitarian aid distribution and student exchange. CYMA was founded in late 1992 through a collaboration between Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, then primate of the Canadian Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and university student Ronald Alepian.

Armenian Reporter Article

Armenian Reporter, The

02-05-1994

The Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia: Answering the Call.

By RONALD ALEPIAN

As the holiday season recedes further and further, our lives return to normal. With some effort we return to old working habits and eating habits and hopefully will be able to pay the credit card bills that will be arriving soon. Yet thousands of miles away, in our homeland, our brothers and sisters in Armenia did not celebrate The New Year or the birth of Christ.

All winter, in sub-zero temperatures, the people of Armenia are huddled together around wood-burning stoves waiting for an end to the brutal and merciless winter. No electricity. No heat. No running water. No industry. No commerce. No employment. No warm blankets. No warm meals. No hope. The very old and the very young suffering from exposure and malnutrition, some losing the fight to stay alive, never to see a summer in Armenia again. This is what the people of Armenia have endured this winter. This is how they spent their holiday season.

However, spring will come. When the winter thaws and the snows melt, the people of Armenia will come out of their winter hibernation and attempt to rebuild their lives. They will work all summer to prepare for the next winter. They hope that the following winter will be better but in their hearts they know that it probably will not.

As their work goes on this summer, the Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia (CYMA) and Diasporan Armenians must unite to help our homeland. To build schools or clinics and to provide lasting and short-term humanitarian aid. And most importantly, to renew their hope. To remind the people of Armenia that halfway around the world there are people who care. Last summer CYMA's inaugural project saw twenty-four young men and women team up with over twenty locals to build a 10,000- square-foot kindergarten, distribute aid to over two hundred orphans and provide courses in English as a second language to dozens of local youths.

CYMA participants gave up summer jobs with no complaints and contributed hard-earned money to finance their trip. They travelled to Armenia and spent weeks and even months working for their people. This is the ultimate gift any young man or woman can give to Armenia. Sharing not only the difficulties of working in Armenia but giving up something back home to share some of the pain. The sacrifice May Be symbolic in that we can easily return to Canada and re-earn lost dollars, but it provides a feeling of solidarity that is essential to the CYMA experience.

As CYMA prepares for next summer's project, we ask the community for its support. This project, although acting under the auspices of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, is one for Armenia and open to the entire Diaspora. CYMA is open to all youths from all organizations, all churches, all political convictions, all backgrounds and all countries.

CYMA is in contact with our volunteers in Armenia on a weekly basis. Already, we have begun feasibility studies on several potential projects for this summer. One thing is certain. CYMA will return this summer and do bigger and better things. Just as certain is that CYMA will return to Armenia every summer.

Hopefully, one day Armenia will not need our help and CYMA's burden and the burden of the Diaspora will be lightened. However, for the time being, Armenia does. Armenia needs not only words of support and encouragement but action from the Diaspora. To a large extent, Armenia's call for action has been answered by the Diaspora, but we can do more. We must do more. Organizing parties, sports activities, dance groups and cultural events are all worthwhile and important activities but must be second to our responsibility towards our homeland.

Armenia has been given one last chance to become a viable and self-sustained nation-state. It is our responsibility, morally and historically, to do everything in our power to insure that Armenia survives these difficult times. The chances of survival for Armenia are good, but only if we react today. Armenia needs an outpouring not only of money and aid but of patriotism and hope. Let us not only send aid and assistance to Armenia but deliver it ourselves. The people of Armenia need to meet us. They need to know that we are working for them, thinking of them and are prepared to make sacrifices for them.

Many Armenians in the Diaspora have chosen to spend one or two years living in Armenia, some have even moved there permanently. This is more valuable to Armenia than all of the money raised in the Diaspora. I realize that this is a major sacrifice, but if you cannot give Armenia a year or a lifetime, give Armenia a month. By volunteering for CYMA you will deliver aid, work the land and assist the people of Armenia. You will drop your sweat on Armenian soil and work side by side with the people of Armenia. Then you will return home, hold your head up and say loudly, "I am Armenian," and you will know what it really means.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Ronald Alepian is 1993 Chairman of the National Steering Committee, Canadian Youth Mission to Armenia.

Innaugural Mission

The first CYMA "mission" took place in the summer of 1993 when 24 young Canadians spent a month in the Ararat region of the newly independent Republic of Armenia. The mission had three main projects:

1. The construction of a primary school. A . building left uncompleted after the fall of the Soviet Union was renovated and furnished in under 4 weeks by the volunteers and opened in late August 1993. It continues to operate today.

2. Distribution of aid to border villages affected by the War in Karabakh and to children and orphan members of the CFFA - Children's Fund for Armenia.

3. Visitations to poor families in the Ararat Region.

Over the next several years, from 1994 to 2007, CYMA conducted missions each year, with over 400 participants having taken one month sabbaticals from life to work hands-on on various projects and programs - from construction to the management of day camps and child care services.

Creation of CYMA

CYMA operates under the auspices of the Canadian Diocese, but since it's early days, enjoys the ACTIVE participation and support of the various Armenian organizations in Canada, including the AGBU - Armenian General Benevolent Union.

It was founded in 1992 by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and Founding Chairperson Ronald Alepian, then a 22 year old university student. When creating CYMA, Alepian formed an honorary Board of Directors to add credibility to the mission, which included the late Senator Jacques Hebert (founder of Canada World Youth) and the late Senator Shirley Maheu. Hebert and Maheu gave counsel and direction to Alepian and the early CYMA leaders.

One of the first things done by the founding committee was to commission a logo to brand the program in the minds of the community. The logo is highly recognizable within the Armenian community and remains a symbol of Canada's participation in the redevelopment of the new country.

Alepian was awarded the St. Gregory of Nareg Cross by Archbishop Derderian in 1993 for his work developing the CYMA program.

On-going mission

CYMA continues to operate today, now working in direct collaboration with the Armenian Church Youth Organization. It remains one of the most active youth projects within the Armenian community of Canada.