YEREVAN — Noubar Afeyan, founder and CEO of several successful biotech companies, including Flagship Pioneering, and co-founder of a number of philanthropic ventures, including the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, has launched another future-focused initiative, the Armenian Spiritual Revival Foundation.
The opening ceremony for the newly established Foundation was held in Matenadaran on May 17 and was attended by Armenian Minister of Health Anahit Avanesyan, USAID/Armenia Mission Director John Alero, UNICEF Armenia Representative Christine Weigand, and many of the Foundation’s national and international partners, mental health experts, and beneficiaries.
The main objective of the event was to present the work carried out by the Foundation over the past few months, with a particular focus on a new approach to mental health issues, dubbed the journey of “psychological and spiritual recovery”.
In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Afeyan emphasized that the roots of this initiative were laid long before the 2020 war and that it was a natural extension of the many successful projects he and his partners (including Ruben Vardanyan, currently illegally held in Azerbaijan) have launched and supported in Armenia to date. In his words, the Revival Foundation’s goal is to support people who have overcome the hardships of war and its consequences and the associated psychological trauma, and are looking to carve out a new path in life through a journey of mental and spiritual healing and recovery.
“The origins of this initiative stem from the absolute shock and trauma we all experienced in 2020, and then in 2022, when Azerbaijan made life unbearable for our fellow countrymen in Artsakh – the war, the invasion of Armenian territory, and the ethnic cleansing we witnessed in September 2023. After experiencing great suffering 100 years ago and a century of reconstruction, we thought we would never witness anything like this again,” Afeyan said.
The Armenian Spiritual Recovery Foundation’s mission is to transform contemporary approaches to mental health recovery in post-crisis situations and to devise and implement innovative spiritual approaches. The Foundation seeks to develop and implement innovative mental health programs rooted in psychology, the experience of Armenian survivors, and the centuries-old traditions and spiritual values of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
