When Mary Baghdasaryan from Alaverdi first arrived at the COAF SMART Center in Lori, she was amazed by the size of the hub— her music school’s stage was the only thing that compared to the scale of its amphitheater.
Elen Kharatyan from the village of Dsegh in Lori first stepped into the SMART Center at just eight years old—and she hasn’t been away for long since.
She says every program at SMART has something special to offer, but the ones closest to her heart are Dance, Drawing, and Russian. Right now, she’s especially excited about joining the AgriTech program.
Once the bassist of Vanadzor’s beloved band Clocker, and later a trombone player during his army service, Sevada Hovhannisyan now brings his musical journey full circle as the Sound Design instructor at the COAF SMART Center in Lori.
At SMART, it’s unlikely to find someone who doesn’t know the theater arts program instructor, Tatul Bostanchyan. At the least, everyone’s heard his famous “Helloo!”—the most effective silencing call—at least once on SMART summer program days.
Narek’s older brother may have joined SMART first, but it didn’t take long for the roles to reverse. Soon, everyone was calling his older brother “Narek’s brother, Manvel.”
The SMART Center in Lori is the setting for the pivoting point in many young student’s stories: the place they discovered their passion, discovered themselves, and sometimes both. This is the story of one such young adult.
Sharing a ride with COAF’s Health Programs Manager and family doctor Lusine Antonyan, it’s not hard to see that she can’t sit still—even on the road.
The Children of Armenia Fund’s (COAF) Health Program Manager, Dr. Lusine Sahakyan has been with the organization for so long that she learned about the opening for her first role at COAF from a newspaper and arrived at the office with her resume printed out.
COAF SMART Center’s dance instructor Artyom visited for the first time out of curiosity and has been lingering back at the center ever since.
As we gear up for an exciting year ahead, we’re proud to share the highlights of what we accomplished together in 2024.
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that employs community-led approaches aimed at improving the quality of life in rural Armenia, with particular focus on children and youth.
New York, USA
149 5th Ave., Suite 500
New York, NY 10010
+1 (212) 994-8234
coaf@coaf.org
Yerevan, Armenia
2/2 Melik Adamyan
Yerevan 0010, RA
+374 10 502076
Not-for-profit organization (#11-3579187). © 2005-2025 Children of Armenia Charitable Fund. All rights reserved.
