A Playground for Gyumri’s Ararat Kindergarten

Gyumri’s Ararat Kindergarten’s conditions are up to standard, but the facility was lacking a safe playground for 160 kindergarteners.

Every child should be able to experience fun in a  playground. That seems such an obvious statement that it almost seems unneeded. But most children in Gyumri don’t have access to a playground. In the Summer of 2019, with the installation of a new playground, we provided the kindergartners with the opportunity to play in a safe environment, promoting a healthier and more active environment for growth for years to come.   

About Gyumri  

Gyumri was first settled around 400 BC, possibly by Greek colonists. The town was inhabited periodically until the early 19th century, when the Russians moved in and built a large military garrison. It even received a visit from Tsar Nicolas I who, in 1837, renamed it Alexandropol after his wife. As the third-largest city in the South Caucasus, after Tbilisi in Georgia and Baku in Azerbaijan, Gyumri was an important trading post between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Asia and Russia. As a transport hub, it was a stop on the rail journey from Georgia to Iran. 

In 1920 the Turkish-Armenian war ended here with the signing of the Treaty of Alexandropol, an event that ceased the Turkish advance on Yerevan. In Soviet times the border was shut and Alexandropol became known as Leninakan, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union the city got its Armenian name of Gyumri. 

Gyumri was severely damaged by an earthquake that devastated northwestern Armenia in December of 1988. The earthquake destroyed much of Gyumri’s historic splendor, and also destroyed the many factories. Besides leveling large parts of the city and surrounding villages, it killed 50,000 people and made many more homeless. The botched recovery effort would haunt the city for years as successive winters passed without heating or electricity.  

With almost 118,600 residents, Gyumri is now the second city of Armenia in both industry and population and is the republic’s major textile center.  Things are better now, even though there is still plenty of reconstruction work to complete. 

The city of Gyumri has 57 schools (1-12 grade) and 30 preschools and kindergartens.