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| In-kind contribution to Institutions |
 HDP delivers clothing, food, hygiene kits, blankets,
gloves, coats, computers, seeds, fertilizer and training to the needy of
Armenia.
HDP became involved in this activity in 2000 when the needs of the Gyumri
nursing house was made apparent to us through the donation of bedding to
them from some Americans who left these items behind when they were
reassigned from Armenia. A visit to the director of the nursing house
indicated that many of the residents did not even have proper slippers to
walk to the dining hall to eat. We quickly rounded up more than 50 pair of
slippers for those of the 110 residents who needed them. In addition, we
were able to collect new underclothing for 30 of the residents along with
a selection of shirts, blouses, slacks, dresses and stockings. UMCOR heard
of our effort and contributed a hygiene kit for each of the 110 residents
and 30 staff members. Soon we brought together people willing to donate
and ship about 1,000 pounds of like-new clothing from the Booneville
community in Missouri, USA to Armenia. People in Missouri sorted clothing
donated to a charity in Booneville and delivered them to United Van Lines.
United Van Lines delivered the clothing to the UMCOR warehouse in
Louisiana. UMCOR baled the clothing and shipped it to Yerevan, Armenia.
Volunteers sorted the clothing in the UMCOR warehouse for the many
institutions who received the clothing. HDP volunteers personally handed
most of the items of clothing to residents of the receiving institutions.
The result was very positive; many people were helped by items that might
have otherwise been lost in the transfer from donors to beneficiaries.
This has motivated HDP to recruit volunteers to help distribute in-kind
donations directly to those in need. HDP thus began an intentional program
of facilitating the delivery of in-kind donations to those most in need.
Donors quickly saw that HDP was a dependable organization providing scarce
resources for organizations with supplies of donated items that did not
have financing for sufficient distribution activities commensurate with
their supplies. Many donate items without thinking of the cost of
effectively distributing them. Often organizations are faced with large
amounts of items and no money to staff the distribution. HDP helps.
Rural communities, nursing houses, orphanages, kindergartens, and boarding
schools for the handicapped have extremely scarce resources to keep their
facilities operating properly and they deteriorated rapidly in the last
few years. DIGNITY feels committed to help these facilities in different
ways; provide better nutrition. Since 2001 DIGNITY has assisted Gyumri and
Nork Nursing homes as well as some orphanages and boarding schools meet
their immediate needs of food, clothing, etc. 
We requested, received, and delivered 100 Blankets for the Gyumri charity
kindergarten. This kindergarten is not supported by the Armenia
government, but gets it support from individual donations. It is operating
in buildings constructed after the earthquake. The children in this
kindergarten take naps daily. When the kindergarten was established, nice
bunk beds were constructed for this purpose, but the blankets used to keep
the children warm in the winter and as mattresses in the summer needed
replacing. We requested, received, and delivered 250 hygiene kits; 110 for
the Gyumri nursing house, 60 for the Hope Orphanage in Gyumri, and 80 for
the children in the Charity Kindergarten of Gyumri.
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