Page:«Armenia og armenierne.» (Bodil Biørn okt. 1944).pdf/9

- 7 - sometimes strengthened and full of thanks to God when I heard how wonderful some of them had been saved and preserved on their long, dangerous journeys.

As I worked among the refugees in Constantinople, I heard about the boundless distress in the small Armenian Republic, especially among the thousand orphans who roamed the streets hungry and lost, and yes, many of them died of hunger. And since it is especially the children who have been supported by Norwegian Armenian work, I decided to go there if God opened the way.

In early 1922, I left with some Americans who worked in “Near East Relief”.

Nor did that part of Armenia escape the devastation of the Turks. Twice the Turks invaded it. The first invasion in 1918 and the last in 1921. By then they had destroyed 78 large and prosperous Armenian villages and murdered most of the population. In the Kars district, 12,000 of the Van and Musch refugees had built temporary homes, but because of the Turkish invasion they had to flee from their homes and possessions.

The small Armenian Republic is only 30,000 sq. kilometers with a population of c. 1 million, the majority of Armenians. They control their own country. Erivan is the capital. Together with Gregoria and Azerbaijan, they have formed a federation whose seat is in Tiflis - the capital of Gregory -. These three states are united with Russia, which governs all foreign affairs. The government was trying to get the country back on its feet. Morale was formerly very high among the Armenians but had dropped a lot by the time I arrived. After all, a majority of these persecuted people have lived on the run for years, and the orphaned children roamed around and where begging. Therefore, the godlessness of the youth increased to a disturbing degree.

When I arrived there was famine and misery. A lot of the children came to the cities from the villages to look for bread, because in the villages the harvest was ruined by the Turks, so they only had grass to eat. Many nights I couldn't sleep as I heard the little ones on the street shout for bread. How happy I was when I finally got a good house in Leninagan (Alexandropol) by the government and was able to gather some of these starving and freezing little ones into a good home. Firstly, after all, we had to set up and procure the essentials. It was such a joy when I could admit the first few. They were miserable and lost, and many looked like skeletons, yellow and thin, mostly in rags and full of flees. But our Norwegian home "Luisaghpiur", Lyskilde, soon resounded with happy children's voices. The little ones ran around happily after they had had a bath, got the rags of and instead got clean, nice clothes and fed. Many of them were sick and lost when they were admitted, and 2 of the worst died quite soon after. I got 2 nice, kind women to help me with the little ones. One became our chef, the other looked after the children, and then I got a procurer since we had to buy everything for c. 1 year at a time as the price in winter increased to the double. The first 25 were admitted little by little. Later, 11 more arrived, so we finally had 36 little boys in our home. Only one of the children had heard of God. We had school and a teacher for them at home, and I even taught them Bible history as it was forbidden in school. Each of the older children had their housework. They had to help, and every 14 days the chores were switched around, and the one who had done his best work received a small reward.

They were easy to teach, and it wasn't long before they knew both songs and scriptures, even 3 Norwegian songs they learned. When they got socks and shoes