And for this we are thankful.... - Armenian Reporter

14 The Armenian Reporter | November 22, 2008CommunityThe former chairperson of the Armenian Community Council of IndiaIn his own words:Haik H. Sookias, Jr.TANGRA, India – The once-vibrantArmenian community of Indiaboasted some 30,000 members.Now the community is said to havebetween 80-100 Armenians. Only20–22 are members of the ArmenianChurch.While the community here maynot be large, the community’s resourcesare reportedly vast, thanksto a number of endowments to theArmenian Church.The Armenian Reporter’s PaulChaderjian spoke to one of theimmediate former chairperson ofthe Armenian Community Councilof India, Haik H. Sookias, Jr.,whose resignation was acceptedtwo weeks ago by CatholicosKarekin II. The new chairperson isMichael Dutt, who shares the fiscalresponsibilities of the communitywith two other wardens, SusanMargaret Reuben and SunilSurin Sobpr.Armenian Reporter: Tell usabout Paul Chater and his endowment.Haik H. Sookias, Jr.: Sir PaulChater was a founding member ofa merchant’s bank, way back beforeit was HSBC. He gave the ArmenianChurch 525 pounds of his shares 80years ago. You multiply that by theyears, and you can understand howmuch money he actually gave. Atthe time, nobody knew that thisfledgling bank was ever going to beanything.AR: How much money are wetalking about?HSS: Well, 525 pounds of sharesin the late 1920s, 80 or 90 years ago,and I think that was 1/11th of thebank. Today it is 1.4 or 1.5 percentof the actual bank’s shares. The dividendof that is the money that weuse for the Church. Unfortunately,because of Indian law and whatthey call the Charities Act, we can’tactually sell the shares. It’s not likewe can go and say let’s take 10, 20million bucks, and let’s do somethingbetter with that. We can’t.We can’t sell the shares. In fact, wedon’t even specifically hold them.Under Indian law, they’re ours, butwe don’t hold them. They’re actuallyheld by the official trustee ofWest Bengal.AR: I’ve heard a lot of talk thatthe income from these endowmentsis between one million tofive million dollars a year. Can yougive me specific numbers?HSS: I’m not able to do that, becausethere are amounts in dollarsand amounts in shares; and literally,the main asset value is the shares.You really can’t put into numbersthe value of this property [HolyTrinity in Tangra] or the value ofother properties that we have. Weonly have access to the interest income.The basic money is tied up.So it can’t be touched. But obviously,they’re more than significant, inthe millions of dollars annually.ClassifiedsReal Estate Glendale. 2 Bdrm., 1 ½ bathApt., lower unit, wall A/C, newhardwood floors & paint. 1 prkg.419 Thompson #3. $1295. 818-590-1295 MONTROSE OFFICES. 2,500sq. ft., 2500 Honolulu Ave., prkg.& 1,750 sq. ft., 2490 HonoluluAve., prkg, Great Location! Call310-550-1012 x.109AR: That amount is only the annualinterest income?HSS: It’s actually earnings income.The amount completely dependson the economic conditions.With the financial crisis, it mightbe one million [U.S. dollars]. In areally, really good year, it might befive million. But after saying that,when the money comes in, we haveto look after the properties. Wehave decided to put money intorenovating the properties. So thefirst priority with the money is thework we need to do in our community.We make sure the old peopleare looked after. Other things wedo is make smaller contributions tohospitals, so that when Armeniansget ill, they go to those hospitalsand receive care. It’s sort of like adeal you make with the hospital.“Look, I’ll give you $10,000 now, butif the guy comes in later on, yougive him free treatment. So thatstuff is constant also. And we paystipends to 250 people. We feedthem. We look out for the churchesand take care of the staff, and allthe schools.AR: You have used Churchfunds to create the first traumahospital, the Armenian ChurchTrauma Hospital for all residentsof Kolkata and the first HIV/AIDSArmenian Church hospital for allchildren in India and an orphanagefor kids left homeless in theIndian Ocean Tsunami . How doyou decide what non-Armenianprojects to fund?HSS: Essentially, what happensis that we look around a lot. Peopleget to know that the ArmenianChurch wants to work with charitiesand we want to be involved, sothey apply. For every one of thecharities that we have done andthat we have mentioned, I’d say20 others we have rejected. Ourrule of thumb is that we have togo and see the place. We have gotto know that it’s a genuine charity.The other rule of thumb is thatwe have to make sure is that anadministrative cost is not comingChildcare/Day Care DOLLY CHILD DAY CARELoving care and safe area, hotmeals, and C.P.R. Pre-schoolprogram. Music, art, dance. Lic#197415571 Located in ValleyVillage. (8180 763-0313 or (323)788-1024out of the charity. In other words,somebody else isn’t living off thecharity. So, you go to all these bigcharity organizations, and theyhave administrative costs at 50-70percent, you give them a hundreddollars, and the actual money thatgoes to a poor person is 20 dollarsor 10 dollars. We want to makesure, in our case, and we knowthere is a certain amount of costto do the charity, but we make sureat least 80 percent is going to thepoor kids.“If the studentsof the ArmenianCollege start seeingpeople coming all thetime and realizingthis is not someforgotten outpost ofArmenians,they maystart to think thatwe’re not in such a badplace.”Automotive 2002 Honda Civic EX automatic,original owner, moonroof,70k miles, $9850/OBO 818-249-4390 Ford 2004 250 Super DutyLariat mdl. Truck in very finecond. 6 liter diesel, 4WD, crewcab, Maroon ext. lthr int. W/Cab-Hi Snug Top shell w/folddown slider window. AllstarAR: Are there any laws in the Republicof India that tell you whereand how to spend the money?HSS: It was actually decidedby Sir Paul Chater and his descendentsthat we be set up as acharitable trust. Under charitabletrust laws in India, you actuallyhave to give away 85 percent ofwhatever income you might earnin the Church to retain your charityand nontaxable status. So wegot into a situation where we hadto do charity, where we either hadto spend it on our churches or wehad to do the charity. I mean, welook after Armenians from thecradle to the grave. From the momentthey are born, if they needheart operations, if they needanything, we give them monthlystipends, we give them bonusesfor Christmas, we run the oldfolks’ home here called the PaulChater Home.AR: So, any Armenian can applyand move in to the Paul ChaterHome?HSS: You can apply, but you haveto get past me, and I have to approve.But I’m a bit of a bulldog I’mafraid.AR: How about the ArmenianCollege. Do you accept any Armenianstudent who applies?HSS: There is a not a very majorselection process, but I think peoplewho could generally send theirchildren to really good schoolsdon’t particularly want to sendthem here at the moment. We stillhave a bit of a way to go to get theschool up to international standards,academics-wise and facilities-wise.I think there’re a lot ofreasons that we have been behindthe ball for some years, and weneed to do a lot more. But it’s notonly us. The cooperation has tocome from Etchmiadzin, becausethey are the people who select thekids who come here. Since Etchmiadzinis actually in control of themanagement of the school, it isthey who decide which kids comeand which kids don’t. We wouldlike to change that, and we’ve beentalking for some time about howthis can be changed, how to improvethe school and make it moreopen access. There are things thatare there for the future. We havea lot more to do, and that’s oneof the goals. A lot of it dependson the committee and the peoplehere, and it’s very much a committeeby democracy. Everyone has asay, and a lot of it has to do withEtchmiadzin and what role theywant to play in terms of the developmentof the school. That’s verymuch up to them.AR: How many students can theArmenian College enroll?bedliner, chrmfoot rails. Yakimaroof rails. $3000 Banks Stingerw/OttoMind 6 diesel tunerand power PDA. 109950 miles.13-15 mpg city; 18-21 mpg hwy.$15,000/OBO 818-790-2123Employment(Left to right)The wardens ofthe ArmenianCommunityCouncil of Indiainclude MichaelDutt, chairman,Susan Reubenand Sunil Sobpr.Photo: TamarKevonian. CAN seeking position forcaregiver. Exp/ref. Live-in. Anytime818-921-5000 IrmaHSS: I think we could take upto maybe 200 or 250 kids. I think[the school] needs more infrastructure[development]. It also needsa lot of, I guess, cooperation withthe people who want to send theirchildren. At the moment, the onlychildren who come are underprivilegedchildren from Armenia andIran, and last year we had maybeseven from Iraq.AR: You are reaching out to Armeniansthroughout the diasporato tell them about your communityand its treasures. What doyou want them to know about yourcommunity?HSS: We want them to realize weare here, first, and then come moreoften. Come and enjoy the churches.You’ve seen St. Mary’s Churchin Chennai and you’ve seen HolyTrinity in Tangra. You have yet tosee the big St. Nazareth Churchand the St. Gregory Chapel. You’regoing to get mind-blown when yougo to Saidabad. If you think thisHoly Trinity is something, holdon to your hats. You really haven’tseen anything yet.We built this [Holy TrinityChurch in Tangra]. We redevelopedthis, and people really have to startcoming. People have got to starttaking interest. Only when youstart generating the interest, pointone percent of the people will say,“Hey, it’s not such a bad place. Indiais still a booming economy, 7.5percent growth a year, and the ArmenianChurch is going to give ussomewhere to stay and help us getjobs.” They’ll think about it for awhile.If the students of the ArmenianCollege start seeing people comingall the time and realizing thisis not some forgotten outpost ofArmenians, if they think, “Hey,people are actually coming hereto see us; Americans are coming;Australians are coming; foreignersare coming,” they may start tothink that we’re not in such a badplace. And if they start thinkingthis is not such a bad place, thenthey make take the offers we havemade to them to pay for their educationin Indian universities, andthe offer they’ll be made once theydo that to give them free homes.I want to build some single-familyhomes here, and then maybethe kids will begin to see this isnot such a bad place. The Churchis looking after them, and theChurch is giving them somewhereto stay. The Church is giving theman education.Hopefuly, even if 10 percent,five percent or two percent ofthe kids stay, and become successful,then the next generationwill stay. It’s not bad. That’s howyou start, and a lot of it dependson people coming. You peoplestart coming. Other foreignersstart coming. You coming is actuallygiving the kids the messagethat maybe it’s somewhereto come and make a life. connect:armenianchurch.inClassified listingsnow availablePlease call818-955-8407or email us atclassifieds@reporter.amto place your ad