During the 1923 school year, five hundred eighty-one children lived in the Beirut orphanage. Every year, around fifty of the oldest orphans were sent to Aleppo to learn a trade in the ABGU’s Giligian orphanage and vocational school. The Kelegian-Sisvan orphanage had a vocational school of its own, reserved for girls. Here they learned needlework, embroidery, and weaving.28
In 1926, after the Union’s Jerusalem orphanages were closed, three hundred twenty-two orphans from that city were admitted to the Kelegian-Sisvan orphanage. One year later, Amadian resigned from his supervisor’s post. He was temporarily replaced by Dr. Melkonian.
In addition to the Kelegian-Sisvan orphanage, Lebanon had other Armenian-run orphanages, such as the one administered by the Vorpakhnam in Junieh, where some two hundred fifty children lived. Founded in 1920, when the Vorpakhnam had had to evacuate the children from its orphanage in Aintab, it was directed, like its predecessor, by Ghazaros Ghebligian. In 1928, however, when this institution found itself penniless, the AGBU transferred the seventy-five children still living in it to the ... Read all
The AGBU's Orphanages in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus
Orphans from Beirut's Kelegian-Sisvan orphanage on 24 November 1923.
Orphans from Kayseri arriving in Beirut's Kelegian-Sisvan orphanage in 1929 (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).
The cross marks the spot on the hill where the Beirut or-phanage stood (Coll. Bibl. Nubar/Paris).