{"id":46696,"date":"2010-10-04T06:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/2010\/10\/04\/mer-doon-turns-girls-into-brides\/"},"modified":"2010-10-04T06:29:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T06:29:00","slug":"mer-doon-turns-girls-into-brides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2010\/10\/04\/mer-doon-turns-girls-into-brides.html","title":{"rendered":"Mer Doon Turns Girls into Brides"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Thanks to the efforts of Mer Doon (&#8220;Our Home&#8221;) NGO and funding from Armenian-American benefactors, there is a Mer Doon facility in Etchmiadzin that takes under its auspices 18-year-old female orphans who are past the age of remaining in care, provides educational opportunities for them, and &#8220;successfully marries them off in the future,&#8221; said Mer Doon NGO President Tigranuhi Karapetyan at a press conference today.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Press conference participants also spoke of a recently filmed documentary about the organization and its activities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Director Alexander Mirzakhanyan, visiting Mer Doon, proposed shooting the film, which depicts the story of one girl, who, coming out of Mer Doon, marries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">&#8220;Then I understood that music is necessary for the film and I went to Martin Aharonyan, as well as numerous singers. Many agreed and both the song and the film were created simultaneously,&#8221; said the director, adding that the film is not comprised of lamentation; the contrary in fact, it completely breaks the stereotype that orphans must be pitied.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">Singer Alla Levonyan also shared her impressions of her visits to Mer Doon with journalists.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">&#8220;I go quite often to Mer Doon, I speak with nearly all the girls, they tell me their problems. But there&#8217;s something very important: There&#8217;s really a warm environment at Mer Doon, the girls live in very good conditions,&#8221; she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">The director of Mer Doon also said that already 6 girls have gotten married and they already five children, which Mer Doon staff consider their &#8220;grandchildren.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'; min-height: 16px\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 14px\/normal 'Arian AMU'\">&#8220;I have a friend in the US, who after watching the film, is preparing to take a girl from Mer Doon for her son,&#8221; said composer Martin Aharonyan. \u00a0<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to the efforts of Mer Doon (&#8220;Our Home&#8221;)&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[16583,16581,16584,16582,16585],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}