Smyrna times., 1921-01-19
CHILD SAVING IN ARMENIA
Charles V. Vickrey Gives Facts of
Relief Program for Orphans.

Charles v. viclzrey, general secre-
9ry of the Near East Relief, has re-
turned from a trip Of inspection
throughout Central Europe and the
Near East, and made report TO the
trustees of the Near East Relief in
which he covers In detail the actual
work of child saving now being con-.
Quoted by the great American relief
organization in the Near East. Mr..
Vickrey believes that "a few millions
of dollars wisely expended at this time
in the education of the children of
the Near East, in character building
and in moulding these young lives,
will be worth vastly more to the world
than billions of dollars spent later in
suppressing international warfare and
strife"
MIR. Vickrey considers the need In
the Near East and especially in Ar
menia greater than anywhere else in
the world. because, as he says, "In the
countries of Central Europe there are
going governments which have merely
been temporarily impoverished by war
In the Near East, on the other hand,
there is no such thing as stable gov
crnment. The whole fabric of the
state has TO be created from the be-
ginning, and the innocent and help
less children have to be trained to the
responsibilities of future citizenship.
Peace in the Near East and, in great
measure, throughout the world. will
depend very largely on the character
of the. citizenship of the peoples of the
Near East"
Irresistible Appeal of Orphans.
Describing the orphanage work of
the Near East Relief in the Armenian
Republic, Mr.. Vickrey said:
1--WE have at Alexandropol in the
Caucasus, one orphanage where there
are approximately 10000 homeless
children, fatherless or motherless,
many of them having no known living
relative. Scme of them do not even
know their own names, OF. the place of
their birth. They have shown wonder
full recuperative powers, and to see
them play their kindergarten or other
games under the direction of our Ameri-
can relief workers. one could never be-
lieve that they had passed through
the years of suffering that most of
them have experienced since they, or
their parents, were driven from their
homes in Central Turkey five years
ago.
ssFor tho accor,r,odotto,, % ,hoso -,
phans there are sixty splendid stone
buildings, erected as barracks for the
Russian army. These buildings are
now given to us by the Armenian, gov
crnment for period Of ten years and
lend themselves admirably to relief
purposes.
This orphanage at Alexandropol is
ut one of the 229 orphanages that the
Near East Relief is now operating in
various parts of the Caucasus. Anato-
la, Cilicia, Syria and the Constanti-
Lople-Straits area.
Thirty miles from Alexandropol, at.
iSars. there is another group of Rus
sian army barracks, which were given
Us by the Armenian government for
relief purposes. l was going through
The dormitories Of this orphanage >at
lars when the young American col
lege gfrl in charge turned to me and
said: Mr.. Vickrey, It sometimes makes
me feel just a little older than Me-
ihuselah to be called Mother" by
G.000 of those Armenian children.
And that is exactly what she was
the only mother that these 5000 Ar
menian children have. except as she
avails herself of the organized assist
ance of native Armenian women, in
caring for this large family.
''In the hospital at Kars l found
1850 beds, which, the day 1 was there.
were occupied by 1,26S patients, it
frequently being necessary to put two
or more children in a single bed. At
Alexandropol we have in one hospital,
or group of hospital buildings, 1850
trachoma patients. At Karakis. forty
miles east Of Alexandropol we have
an orphanagee devoted exclusively to
the care and training Of the blind
children. At Delijan we have another
.orphansge. located on a mountain side,
for the care of tubercular children.
this segregation being as much for
the welfare of the healthy children in
the orphanages as for the care of the
unfortunate consumptives. At Erivan
we formerly had twenty-six distinc,
orphnnages. though they have now
been r. 1uced and consolidated to
seven ~ number. There "a some
thing a-~.e' than 5000 orph 5 n the
region of Hatpout."