U.S. Ambassador John A. Heffern's speech at the "Embracing the Disabled" solidarity concert and exhibition - Naregatsi Art Institute, Yerevan, Armenia, April 20, 2012
The event was attended by US Ambassador to Armenia John A. Heffern and his wife, Charge d'Affaires of Lebanon to Armenia Ziad Atallah, cultural attaché for the French embassy in Armenia Fabien Neyrat, numerous prominent artists, businessmen, public figures and NGO representatives.
As part of the event wheelchairs and mobility aid items were donated to the Bridge of Hope, Prkutyun, Tsil Busats, Shogh, and Unison disability NGOs and the Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center.
The program of the event was comprised of a classical, spiritual and folk music concert featuring predominantly performers with disabilities, and an exhibition of fine arts and sculpture, again comprised of visual artworks made by artists with special needs and the physically challenged.
Concert
Naregatsi Folk Instruments Ensemble
Paros choir
Levon Karapetyan-piano
Tsovinar Boghossian -- vocal
Aleksandr Zhukov- vocal
Featured accompanist: Artur Harutyunyan - piano
Exhibition of Works of Artists with Disabilities
Antranik Boghossian -- sculpture
Bridge of Hope NGO
"Prkutyun" Center for Disabled Children and Youth
"Tsil Busats" Harmonious Development Center
The "Shogh" Creative Center of Support for People with Disabilities
The Lady Cox Rehabilitation Center
"Unison" NGO
The event was a unified effort to convey that nobody's personal circumstances should ever constitute an insurmountable barrier to inclusion and to the solidarity we owe to each other; and ensure thereby that we are unswerving in our efforts to defend the value of human diversity and our fight against exclusion based on any type of personal difference.
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