What an incredible achievement! On April 24, 2022, our very own AECP Founder and President Dr. Roger Ohanesian was awarded with the 2022 Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award from the ASCRS Foundation. He was handed the coveted prize in Washington, D.C. during the ASCRS Annual Meeting.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Ohanesian expressed his awe at how much the Armenian EyeCare Project has accomplished in Armenia during our 30-year history and service to the country. “You have no idea when you start something what it’s going to turn out to be,” Dr. Ohanesian said. “It has truly, though, for me, been the honor of a lifetime.”
Dr. Roger Ohanesian accepts his award from Dr. David Chang
The AECP’s list of accomplishments in our 30 years of service to Armenia is vast. Over 100 volunteer physicians have visited Armenia during Medical Missions to train local physicians and work on complicated cases; local ophthalmologists in Armenia have received advanced medical education and training both by participating in U.S. fellowships and being trained in-country; and numerous patient care programs and facilities have been developed in Armenia including the AECP’s Mobile Eye Hospital, Center of Excellence for the Prevention of Childhood Blindness, Regional Eye Centers and more.
“Very few of us will leave a mark on this world as important as that of Roger Ohanesian,” Dr. John Hovanesian, a fellow ophthalmologist and volunteer physician with AECP, said. “For 30 years Roger has dedicated his life to helping people rise above blindness half a world away. He’s been passionate, he’s been persistent, and he’s been extremely efficient in gathering resources and recruiting like-minded volunteers through his contagious enthusiasm and folksy charm.”
Dr. Ohanesian said he was honored to be recognized by his colleagues within ASCRS for his 30 years of service in Armenia but that this work would be impossible without the team of doctors who’ve volunteered with the AECP through the years.
“I, alone, should not be the sole recipient of this award,” Dr. Ohanesian said. “It should be shared by each of those who have repeatedly joined our trips, brought instruments and expertise which is then left with our Armenian colleagues who have accomplished so much.”
Most of all, Dr. Ohanesian expresses an immense amount of gratitude for being able to see his vision for Armenia come to life: “I am in awe of what we have accomplished and immeasurably proud of how far this program has come. It’s quite a thrill to see and I’m just so thankful for all of it.”
The ASCRS Foundation’s Chang-Crandall Humanitarian Award is also endowed by a generous gift from Dr. and Mrs. David and Victoria Chang, which Dr. Ohanesian has earmarked for the Armenian EyeCare Project.
Our deepest congratulations to our beloved Dr. O for receiving this much-deserved humanitarian award and beginning an organization that has been so needed and has accomplished so much in Armenia!
