LOS ANGELES–A photo exhibition and sale, displaying the everyday life of Armenians in Javakhk will be held on Saturday July 25 at the Lost Souls Café in Downtown Los Angeles. (124 W. 4^th Street, Los Angeles CA, 90013).

The event’s goal is to raise $6,000 to purchase two cars for the Javakhk Armenian youth organization, which has faced difficulty in organizing activities in Armenia over the years due to a lack of transportation. All proceeds will be donated through the Armenian Youth Federation’s Western Region, which is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.

The youth in Javakhk have a desire to share learning experiences with other Armenian youth in the region. Unfortunately, a lack of transportation prohibits them from participating in summer camps, educational opportunities, and life enhancing experiences in Yerevan and Kharabagh.

With community participation and support, the exhibit hopes to bridge the gap between Armenians living in Javakhk, Armenia, and Kharabakh–a division which shouldn’t exist.

The professional photos that will be displayed depict an Armenian reality in Javakhk and provide a deeper look into the everyday lives of the people, their tradition, labor, courage, religion and love.

You can visit the Facebook event page here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=90597833811&ref=ts

GLENDALE—The Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF) Glendale Chapter marked the opening of its long anticipated Youth Center on Sunday, July 12 as hundreds from the community attended a special ribbon cutting ceremony to inaugurate the new building, located at the center of a diverse and growing city of over 200,000.

The Krikor and Mariam Karamanoukian Glendale Youth Center, located at 211 West Chestnut St. Glendale 91204, will be dedicated to the enhancement and progression of the Glendale community.

A distinctively designed green and yellow building, the new center will also serve as a place where the city’s youth can spend their after school hours studying in the library, working on projects in the computer lab, and getting involved with various local non-profit organizations.

Among other programs, the community will have access to a host of internship opportunities, social services, gang and drug prevention programs, youth sports and recreation programs, and opportunities for the community to come together through cultural exchange. It will also work in tandem with neighboring St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church to serve as a bridge linking new generations with the faith and values of their ancestors.

The planning for the new center officially began in 2004 when the Glendale Chapter of the Armenian Cultural Foundation brought together representatives from various community organizations to embark on the unprecedented project.

A committee, composed of representatives from these organizations, was soon formed to assess the feasibility of the project and to map out a course for developing the building. Three years later, on December 18, 2007, a small groundbreaking ceremony took place to commence the construction of the building.

“There was a time when the initiative of building such a center was considered only a distant dream,” Glendale ACF Chairman Vahe Bozoian told Asbarez. “Today, through the dedication of many loyal and committed individuals as well as gracious contributors, that dream has become a reality.”

Bozoian went on to say that the new Youth Center will be considered “the pride and joy of all Glendalians for generations to come.”

Prior to the opening of the new center, community organizations had no place to call their own, meeting at several different locations in an ad hoc fashion, never certain of the availability for locations to host events.

The official ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by over 200 guests and led by Western Prelate Arch. Moushegh Mardirosian along with several priests from Saint Mary’s.

Glendale is home to over three dozen Armenian organizations serving the community. The ACF Youth center will house the local chapters of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) (along with its Saturday school), the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society, the Armenian National Committee, and the Armenian Cultural Foundation.

At the ceremony, members from each of these organizations stood at their respective office doorsteps to greet the ribbon cutting procession, as benefactors cut ribbons for the individual offices they sponsored.  

After ceremony, the crowd was invited inside where guest speakers congratulated the community and thanked all those who contributed to the establishment of the building.  

Remarks were delivered by California State Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-43), Glendale City Council Member Ara Najarian, ARF Western US Central Committee Member Hovan Tashjian, and the Chairperson of the ACF Glendale Aharonian Chapter Vahe Bozoian.   

As the event came to an end members of the Glendale AYF gathered around in building’s youth room to share ideas on how their chapter would utilize the new facilities to achieve their organization’s goals.  One member, Meghedi Babakhanlou, said she couldn’t wait to start advertising the center’s free tutoring services to Glendale Youth. “I can’t wait to help kids with their school work,” she exclaimed. “There are many families who can’t afford private tutoring services for their children and I am very excited that we now have a place in Glendale to address that issue.”

We have all seen innocent looking chocolate commercials with adorable kids laughing and having a good time while enjoying their chocolate bars. Some brands are represented by bunnies, some with oversized M&Ms, and some are so famous that they are known worldwide—brands such as Hershey, Mars and Nestle. Although they are competing brands they have a couple of things in common: they’re most definitely delicious, and they have one dark secret—CHILD LABOR.

To give a brief overview, chocolate is made from cocoa beans which come from the cacao tree; without these seeds chocolate as we know it would not exist. So, where do these companies get their cocoa beans from? The answer for the most part is Ivory Coast. This leads to the most important question: how does Ivory Coast collect its cocoa beans? Ivory Coast (or Cote d’Ivoire) has one of the largest child labor systems and largest cocoa bean farms; 43% of the world’s cocoa beans come from there.  

One would never guess the irony, and inhumanity, behind these companies. Their largest targets are kids, yet the ones doing the hardest manual labor are children as well.

These children work in horrendous conditions providing the main ingredient of the chocolates that children around the world consume. They are under atrocious conditions and suffer from extreme abuse.  From one end of the world to the other, the knowledge and whereabouts of where these products are derived from are ignored.

Children as young as the age of nine are trafficked into cocoa farms (with up to 15,000 children in each farm) and are forced to work there with very little pay or in most cases with no pay at all. So why do we continue to support them and buy their products?

The main way to fight back is to spread awareness and to boycott such companies that use child labor to get ahead. It will be hard to give up these chocolates, but the good news is that chocolates from stores such as Trader Joes, Whole Foods and some Target brands are free of child slave labor.

The Ivory Coast is not the only source of cocoa seeds; however, it is the main one. The other sources are from Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon and according to UNICEF these sources also have children who do the hard labor of picking the cocoa beans. Although most people assume that slavery no longer exists in the 21st century, numerous investigative reports suggest that the number of slaves at present is the highest it has ever been. UNICEF reports that nearly 700,000 women and children trafficked yearly.

Although these companies have been confronted about their questionable practices, they have not made the effort to change it—claiming that they do not own the farms and therefore do not deserve the blame or responsibility. What they do not comprehend is that they are the largest supporters of these farms, with the consumers of their chocolate second in line.

Most consumers do not know this dark side of these companies. As a result, it is up to those who are aware to do their task and take action by spreading the news.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Nanor Aghamal is a senior at Hoover High School and is an AYF Nanor Krikorian Scholar. Her above article was selected as the winning submission in the 2009 Haytoug High School Essay Contest. This article is featured in the Summer 2009 issue of Haytoug, a quarterly publication by the Armenian Youth Federation. The upcoming issue will focus on the theme of solidarity between peoples and causes. Visit the AYF Booth at the Navasartian Games (July 2-5) to pick up a free copy. It will also be available at community centers, schools and local Armenian book stores. You can also download it in PDF today and visit the website to sign up for a free subscription.

More features from this Summer’s Haytoug:

• Kurds and Armenians: Finding Common Cause
• Another World is Possible: An Interview with Khatchik DerGhougassian
• Vahe Berberian: The Art and the Artist

BEVERLY HILLS, CA–On April 24, 2009, millions of Armenians had their hearts broken by a leader who they believed represented change and hope.

President Barak Obama disappointed his Armenian American supporters by neglecting to keep his campaign promise to honor and recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915 as a true genocide. Instead, he washed his hands of the situation by pushing the responsibility to the Turkish and Armenian government and shamelessly skirting away from an issue that truly holds in its core all of morality. While the disappointment was sever, the perseverance and determination of the Armenian American people did not deter.

On Wednesday May 27, hundreds gathered around the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in Beverly Hills, California to remind the President of his broken promise as he hosted a Democratic Party fundraiser. Joining them were hundreds of other activists demonstrating for gay rights and an end to the war in Iraq and torture.

Organized by the Armenian Youth Federation and the “Shant” Student Association, the demonstration sought to urge Obama to honor his campaign promises to an Armenian American Community disappointed with at the President’s failure to properly characterize the Genocide.

“We are gathered here to remind the President of his campaign promise to properly and justly recognize the Armenian genocide,” said Arek Santikian, a spokesperson for the AYF.“We heard about his visit to Los Angeles about three days ago and mobilized as many people as we could even though it was short notice and a difficult time of the day.”

As the Armenian Americans gathered and chanted “94 years no more tears” and “Obama, keep your promise,” their loomed a genuine sadness amongst all of them who had firmly believed this year—and this president—would have seen an end to the Turkish gag-rule on America’s position on this fundamental human rights issue.

This dissatisfaction, however, has not taken away from the hope and faith instilled within the hearts and minds of every Armenian-American—a feeling so deep rooted that expecting anything other than absolute fortitude and resilience would go against all that they stand for.

“We know he is hearing our voices and will eventually do the right thing,” Santikian said.

And President Obama did hear the voices. In a speech given that same day at the Democratic fundraiser, he said to his audience that one of the protestors said, “Obama, keep your promise”, to which he responded, “I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about.”

If Obama genuinely wants to listen to the people and live up to the example he himself set, then we should hold him accountable for not following through on his word. With a comment such as that, it is up to every single Armenian American to make sure the President knows exactly who was chanting “Obama, keep your promise!” and why.

For Meher Aboolian, a young demonstrator who made the drive from Glendale to West Los Angeles, this issue is a fight for truth. “I want to see the end of denial within the country of which I am a citizen,” he said.

Interestingly, Armenian-American’s were not the only ones demonstrating against Obama’s failure to keep his promieses. Susan Adelman, a mother protesting for the anti-war organization Code Pink, said that there “is an encompassing lack of major promises not being kept. Whether we’re here to protest against war or the recognition of a genocide, we stand here as reminders of what we believed in when he was campaigning and how closely to our hearts we held these issues.”

Another demonstrator, Marcy Winograd also supported the Armenian-American community’s concerns regarding the denial of the Genocide. Winograd plans on running against South Bay Congresswoman Jane Harman in the June 2010 election. Harman is an infamous Genocide denier who, after signing on as a cosponsor to the Genocide Resolution in 2007, lobbied her colleagues to pull their support from the legislation.

Speaking to Asbarez, Winograd expressed sincere concern and dedication to the cause for Genocide Recognition. When asked how she felt about President Obama’s failure to recognize the crime, she said, “I believe that the lack of recognition is a sign of making invisible your citizens and as a public official who is responsible for the people, it shows a sign of irresponsibility.”

While the anti war protesters held up their signs and gathered to call for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Armenians, as they always have in the past, brought voices, spirit and valiancy to the collage of activists demonstrating across from the President.