ARMENIAN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, JUNE 1991
COMPUTER SAMARITANS
Out of the Earthquake Is Born An Electronic Center for Data
Collecting, Rehabilitation
In the chaotic aftermath of the 1988 earthquake, the
collapse of the infrastructure in Armenia's disaster areas & the
disruption of communication lines had created a massive
information crisis. Survivors of the catastrophe were cut off
from the rest of the world, & the magnitude of the human cost -
in terms of fatalities, injuries & dislocations - was yet
unknown to the people & government of Armenia.
In the weeks following the earthquake, Voronoom (Search),
an emergency communications center & data bank, was established
by a group of around 200 young volunteers who had set about
painstalkingly collecting vital information on the victims of
the catastrophe.
With only rudimentary computer equipment & facilities at
its disposal, Voronoom nevertheless managed to identify & locate
some 25000 survivors during its initial phase of operation; it
also published Hope, a widely circulated newsletter that helped
people find missing relatives & friends.
"Very often parents would send their children to other
Soviet republics without themselves knowing the destination; we
found many of those children, too," said Grigor Vahanian,
director of the center.
Bolstered by such an excellent track record, the Voronoom
group soon decided to widen its scope. It obtained official
recognition from the government in January 1989, & with an
impressive staff of 20 electronic engineers, social scientists &
cyberneticists, it put forward an ambitious program that
comprised international information exchange, statistics,
computer education & even software development.
Among the most pressing tasks of the enterprise was
completion of an earthquake data base; the project has since
been carried out systematically, & to date Voronoom has gathered
information about 160000 people from the disaster areas.
Concurrently, the earthquake data base has paved the way for a
more ambitious statistical work: Voronoom initiated an
extensive, analytical study of the demographics of Armenia that
would encompass the last 160 years of the country's history. In
their attempt to construct a comprehensive demographic portrait,
Voronoom scientists had to grapple with many errors throughout
the official records. The ongoing study, which has earned the
organization prominence as a highly reliable source of
historiographical information, includes such topical data as the
number of Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan who died in the
earthquake areas; the number & situation of Armenian orphans
before & after the pogroms in Azerbaijan, & analytical data on
nearly 25000 Armenian refugees who fled the Baku massacres in
1990.
One of the most significant operations of the Voronoom
program is a broadly interactive telecommunications service that
can be accessed by radio & computer. Through an agreement with
the U.S.-based International Radio Network, Voronoom became part
of a vast network that provides direct communication with rapid
deployment teams & authorities in 45 nations during natural or
industrial disasters.
Voronoom's telecommunication services have had a
considerable impact on the flow of information between Armenia &
the outside world & within the republic itself. With radio &
computer equipment donated by American radio amateurs, a hot
line with Karabagh has been set up, thus enabling Voronoom - &
the Armenian government - to keep abreast of the volatile
political & military situation in the isolated Armenian
territory. In fact, Voronoom has assumed a multi-faceted
advisory function for the republic's democratically elected
leadership.
Said Vahanian, the 37-year-old scientist who manages the
center:"Government officials come to us for urgent information
whenever there is a crisis situation in the republic or in
Karabagh."
On a more popular level, Voronoom international links have
been intrumental in the gathering of information about relatives
& friends of Armenian citizens. And in early 1989, Voronoom's
global reach was completed as the organization became an
exchange member of various European & American news &
information services.
Recently, Voronnom announced a rehabilitation plan for
disabled & traumatized children in Armenia. With a view to
establishing telecommunications between Armenian children around
the world, the project intends to foster creative expression &
mutual support through both personal & computer interaction. So
far, Voronoom has distributed 10 personal computers obtaining
from the Armenian Relief Society to various Armenian schools, &
has designed its own curricula for computer literacy.
The organization has also been involved in software
development. Voronoom's two main products - an unprecedented
communications program in the Armenian language, "Hayas", & a
desktop publishing system, "Hayk" - have sold by the thousands.
Another software program, written by Voronoom's biocybernetics
team, is designed to manage & increase farming & agricultural
productivity.
The latest in Voronoom's flurry of activities is a
computerized, on-line educational project of a truly
international scope. In conjunction with Professor Paul
Levinson, an American scientist & president of Connected
Education, Inc., Voronoom is currently in the process of working
out an on-line college credit program that would allow students
in Armenia to earn bachelor's degrees from the United States.
By Gourgen Khazhakian
AIM Yerevan Bureau