Help My Old Neighborhood Overcome this Tragedy

I'm Lusine Gevorgyan and I'm trying to raise money to help my old neighborhood to overcome the consequences of a tragic accident that happened on July 3, 2023.

On the above mentioned day, a massive gas balloon explosion shook a neighborhood on Komitas Street in Yerevan, sending shock waves throughout Armenia. Entire garages were leveled to the ground, and apartment windows, doors, walls, and several cars parked nearby suffered great damages. The only miracle, perhaps, in this misfortune, was the survival of the direct victim of the explosion, an 80-year-old man, in whose presence the gas balloon exploded. After spending several months in intensive care, he was finally declared healed enough to return home.

Unfortunately, the tragedy didn’t end with the explosion or with the dismissal of the 80-year-old victim from the hospital. The consequences of the explosion are felt on everyone in this Komitas neighborhood to this day. Unlike many countries, Armenia doesn't have a good insurance system. Most people don't even have health insurance, let alone home and auto insurance. With no insurance and little income, most of the inhabitants are left to fend for themselves, whether it’s repairing windows, walls, and cars, or rebuilding their garage. Not to mention the victim’s family, who not only had to pay off expensive hospital bills, but still have their damaged apartment to fix.

As someone who grew up in this neighborhood and only moved out a decade or so ago, this accident naturally touched me on a deeply personal level. I know almost all of the affected people personally - they either looked after me growing up or we played together in the courtyard as children. Sadly, there has only been so much that I have been able to do to help my childhood neighborhood since I heard this tragic news. This is why I’ve opened a fundraiser: to help my old Komitas neighbors cover the necessary expenses to fix the fundamentals, including blown-out windows, broken doors, and cracked inner and outer walls especially before winter arrives. Because the damage is so immense, the estimated costs are around €40,000 EUR. This should cover the most basic costs of material and installation. Anything more can be used to rebuild or repair secondary damages to the neighborhood, such as the public spaces in the courtyard that were also damaged.

Every little bit will help to lessen the burden of the inhabitants of my Komitas neighborhood.