Study Highlights Cases of Failed Philanthropy

Despite good intentions, charity projects that supported orphans in Armenia have failed to produce self-sustaining adults and instead led to a generation of people unprepared to live independent of handouts, reports HETQ online, a publication of Armenian investigative journalists.

The Armenian Democratic Forum, a nongovernmental organization, tracked 300 graduates of children’s homes and concluded that after years of aid “these children are not prepared to live and build their future on their own.” One psychologist reported, “Often they seem to be just waiting for something to happen.”

The article focuses on donations from an Armenian-American couple, Mike and Sona Ohanians, to build houses and farms for 20 families headed by adult orphans. The couple abandoned the project in frustration after just four houses were constructed.

And problems linger: The article also profiles three people living in the houses and explains how various spats and lawsuits among them continue to trouble their lives.