Location: Beirut, Lebanon
Principal: Seta Karageozian
Founded: 1951

How it all started
Most of the families of the children at the Armenian Evangelical Torossian School came to Beirut as refugees from Turkey, after the massacres there in 1915 and 1922.  This school was established as a kindergarten in 1951, by Rev Hadidian, and began with 20 children in a 2-roomed flat.  By the next year, the number of students had almost doubled, and an elementary section was added.   In 1966, the school moved to a new building, which had been provided by Mr and Mrs Torossian – hence the school’s name.

An intermediate section was included in 1973, and now over 300 children aged between 4-14 years of age attend the school.  When they leave the school, many of the children go on to study at other Armenian Evangelical schools in Beirut which are also supported by BibleLands, and so the support given to a child often continues.

Current activities
The school aims to provide local children with a good standard of Armenian Education.

The Lebanese government curriculum is taught, with additional lessons in Armenian history, culture and language.  Armenians are proud of their heritage, and that they were the first nation to adopt Christianity.  There is a church on the school’s campus, and the pastor there serves the whole community.  The school holds daily chapel services, and gives Bible lessons.

As well as learning Arabic and Armenian, the students are taught English from an early age, and write in all three different scripts.  Thanks to recent BibleLands’ grants, the school has a computer lab and was able to refurbish its library.

The school focuses on the artistic abilities of the students, and has a choir and sports clubs.  The drama club presents a play each year and in 2003, the school was invited to participate in an International Armenian Theatre Festival, which the students thoroughly enjoyed.

The school also runs a Home-Support programme, where students can stay at school after the lessons have finished, to receive help with their homework.  This is very useful as some of the parents are illiterate and unable to provide this help at home.

Due to the growing recession in Lebanon throughout recent years, many parents have lost their jobs, and are therefore able to pay even token fees to the school.  This makes the support received from BibleLands’ sponsors very necessary, and very gratefully received.