paul chaderjian

Volunteer doctors, nurses performing cleft lip, cleft palate surgeries by Paul Chaderjian Published: Saturday October 11, 2008 Yerevan - They came to Armenia from Minnesota and the Midwest - the American Heartland - on a medical mission. They came to heal those born with one of the most common birth defects around the world - cleft palates and cleft lips. "Overnight we change people's lives," said volunteer Heidi Shafland, a pediatrics ICU nurse from Children's Hospital in Minnesota. "Many children with cleft lips or cleft palates don't go to school. They don't leave their house. They don't have jobs. They don't marry, and we can change someone's future overnight." After more than a dozen hours of travel and little rest overnight, Ms. Shafland and 18 other volunteers from the United States - surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, coordinators, and medical record specialists - reported for duty at a local medical center l...

World’s top cleft surgeon heals Seda’s broken smile by Paul Chaderjian Lusnaghbyur, Armenia - For the Galstyan-Davtyan family in this remote village near Gyumri, life has been more difficult than the usual post-earthquake struggle for survival. Sixteen months ago, the family's new bride, Pepron Yeghoyan, gave birth to a baby girl; the newborn, Seda Davtyan, had a cleft palate and cleft lip. The Galstyan-Davtyan family's journey from the maternity ward to Dr. Les Mohler's operating room at the Arabkir Medical Center in Yerevan this week has been a test of their faith, a daily struggle to keep Seda alive, keep her nourished, keep her from choking on milk, and protect her from the public. Often, on their way to doctors or to pick up government-allocated baby formula, ignorant folk would react with such insensitivity that family members would be left in tears. "When Seda was born, I couldn't even hold the child after birth. I had not heard of ...

Cafesjian Family Foundation takes the lead in organizing Smile Network mission to Armenia by Paul Chaderjian Published: Tuesday October 07, 2008 Yerevan - Every morning, four-year-old Gayane cries and begs not to be taken to school. She covers her mouth so that people don't see her lips. But they do, and they often react. Gayane was born with a cleft lip - a genetic defect also known as cheiloschisis. In Armenia, they still call it a "harelip," a pejorative other cultures and nations have already retired from their languages. No matter what it's called or the age in which we live, people on the streets here often stare at Gayane. Kids at school don't want to be around her. Some classmates make snide remarks. Others tease and bully her. Some adults here think of the split in her lip as a curse or a sign that she is mentally disabled. Unfortunately, Gayane's story is not unique; but this weekend, Gayane tortured life will change forever thanks to...

by Paul Chaderjian Time continues to speed up, perhaps just for me, but I hear it from others too. There's never enough time to do all the things we have to do and want to do. There's never enough time to keep ourselves with the news of the day, process the hundreds of e-mails that come through, look at the websites that attract us, watch the shows we want to watch, and hear the radio stations we want to hear. Let's not forget those nasty text messages. There seems to be too much happening around us in the information age, and that makes each moment more valuable. This stimulus overload should also make us question where all this information is coming from and what motivates those who send it to us or make it available to us. News channels want to make you continue watching, and there is always a natural reaction we'll have to someone else's action of a text message, phone call, or e-mail. All this should make us wonder what we should be listening to and really ...

Asbarez 100th by Paul Chaderjian Words are what I am. Words are what I have. Words are what I can offer. They are at my core, in my ink and on my paper. They are from my heart, from my memory and from my soul. They are what define us, make us and drive us. They are what awaken us and put us to eternal rest. Words are our prayers, our religion and our aspirations. Words are our harmony, our discontent and our collective dream. Words have come naturally, have come with sacrifice, have come at great financial cost. They have flowed and flow with thought and with an agenda, a program. They are mine because I write them for the moment, and yours for reading them well into the future. We write them together because the words come to us, and we read because these words are our gift from you to us and from us to you. It's what we share. It's our passion. It's what creates our communion and our community. We read words, reread them and can never have enough. We...

Asbarez 100th by Paul Chaderjian During the great catastrophes being inflicted on the Armenian people early in the 20th century, perhaps it was divine intervention that created two voices that would incubate and protect the soul of an ancient culture well into the 21st century and beyond. In the same year, 1908, in the same month, August, and in the same small farming community in Central California, Fresno – William Saroyan is born in Armenia Town. Down the street on what is now known as the Fulton Mall, also born is the newspaper which you are reading now – the Asbarez. In concert, independently and prolifically, these two voices would tirelessly work on re-establishing the Armenian identity, creating a new homeland in the Diaspora and recommit themselves to the ancestral lands around Ararat. Call it divine. Call it mythical. Call it the result of cosmic alliances and astrological forces. Call it fate. Call it destiny. Call it history that in August 1908 in Fresno two great ...

Asbarez celebrates one hundred years of dedication to the Armenian Cause and community-building by Paul Chaderjian GLENDALE, Calif. - While much has happened in the world since the first issue of Asbarez was printed 100 years ago, the newspaper’s mission to keep readers informed has never veered off course.  Since August 1908, when each individual letter of the alphabet was hand-picked and positioned on a printing plate, and well into the 21st century, when the Internet makes instant electronic newsgathering possible, Asbarez has continuously chronicled the global Armenian experience with ever-increasing velocity. Asbarez Editor Apo Boghigian credits this century of existence to the volunteers who have rallied around the paper since its first days. “ Asbarez wouldn’t have survived without the resources of its vast community of correspondents,” Boghigian says. “It also wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for the generosity of the individual volunteers and tho...