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Home » Our work » Success Stories
 | Raising a young “scientist”
Marina Harutyunyan
PR, Communication and Fundraising Coordinator
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Zhora Sargsyan lost his wife long time ago. Now he lives with his daughter, who raises her 15 year-old son, Zhora’s grandson – the only hope of the family. The name of the grandson – Darwin- is quite unusual for a remote Armenian village of Aygut in Gegharkunik marz; needless to say it is unusual for any other place in the world. Whether the grandfather is a vigorous follower of the English naturalist or not, yet he probably named his grandson so, with a hope to predict a scientific and bright future for him.
“Darwinist” Zhora Sargsyan has a passion for farming; he loves every piece of land that belongs to him and he admires nature, with her glorious magnitude, which has the power to control people’s life bringing hope, yet also disasters.
Zhora’s life has not been an easy one – left alone, with no wife to grow old with, he had to witness her daughter’s hardships of raising her son alone. On top of all, there was no sufficient source of income to provide everything he wanted to provide for his family.
He knows how important is education for the only hope of the family – Darwin. Zhora tried hard, taking seasonal jobs as wood-cutting, but occasionally he would get severe traumas that would cripple him for a long time. He knew he doesn’t have so much time to waste on injuries, it had to stop! Young Darwin is growing up and the boy needs so much more than just a miserable amount of money that very often Zhora had to use to buy medicine to cure occupational injuries.
Everything was destined to change with Heifer’s arrival. In 2006 the family received a pregnant heifer as pass-on. Now the whole family had so many tasks during the day: the cow had to be fed, cleaned, she needed so much care. Zhora always knew that help is a two-way street. When you take, you always have to give back. This is what he teaches young Darwin – to cherish and love the animal that helped them when they were in need.
Now Zhora is thinking about cultivating the piece of land he had, that was abandoned due to scarce resources.
With the arrival of their “beauty” their life started having so much meaning, so much hope and the dream…Zhora often thought “…Heifer gives people the luxury to dream…doesn’t this make Heifer a dream-giver…”
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