Telethon of Foundation "Aiastan" in Los Angeles raises more than 12 million US dollars for Armenia and Karabakh

The 14 annual telethon of the All-Armenian Foundation "Aiastan", held in Los Angeles, raised about 12,286,000 US dollars of donations. The funds are to be spent on restoration of water supply in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

The telephone marathon, preceding the telethon, was held on November 17-20 in European countries. 700 volunteers from five French cities phoned to Armenian families living in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Greece. As a result, the amount of 1.3 million euros was raised.

The telethon in Los Angeles began on November 24 at 8:00 p.m. Yerevan time and lasted till 8:00 a.m. of November 25. The live broadcast in Armenia was provided by four TV channels – the Public TV of Armenia, the "Armenia-TV", the "Shant", and the "Erkir Media", the "News-Armenia" reports.

This year, donations were made through electronic transfers to special bank accounts and on-line by e-mail. Besides, funds were transferred through post offices in Yerevan and the regions and via SMS-messages in the network of mobile operators in Armenia.

The raised funds will be directed to implement programmes to restore water supply in Armenia and Artsakh, which the Board of Trustees announced to be the major strategic programme in 2011, the "PanARMENIAN.Net" reports.