Vardan Hambardzumyan 

The passing year was full of pain, much of it directly touching us – the Roots staff. Yet with that heavy load of pain on our shoulders, we still managed to take our signature of peace through this dangerous world. And we were blessed to have our key Roots event in Bethlehem…

Rezi Shavladze

Hope… This is what Christmas is all about for me… Or rather, more than anything else… Because it is exactly hope that we lose so often seeing the suffering and injustice gripping the planet – rendering our efforts and dreams futile…

And then comes Christmas… And people genuinely start to seem kinder and happier or they actually become as such – because comes Christmas and rekindles the hope… In ourselves and in each other…

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Šárka Čiháková

I look forward to Christmas every year. Every year is the same, catching up before the year-end and busy season generally. Every year I promise myself that the next year will be different. That I calm down at the beginning of the advent season, I will be watching the world around like a slow-motion picture ????, smelling Christmas through the Christmas markets and church ambience, and just take a pause. Because the realization of what really matters is the most important. Love, hope and also understanding are the values that never go out of fashion. I believe ????. Merry Christmas to everyone!

Irina Berdzenishvili

Over the past couple of years my idea of Christmas has changed. Not only the idea, but even the date is different now.

I remember being wished Merry Christmas on December 25 and automatically replying, oh, Thanks, but it’s not my Christmas yet. I also remember being confused about giving gifts as it isn’t tradition for me.

Now I understand that which calendar you follow is less important and what matters is the values and emotions around this day. Christmas is hope, love, understanding and care. It is time for us to have a look at our past, maybe even say “good job” to ourselves for all the things we accomplished or we could have done, time to say thanks to everyone who made us through the year, and with the new energy, new hopes and renewed spirit, carry on.

Lika Zakaryan

This year the world kept going crazy, trying to make us believe it isn’t worth fighting for. It kept trying to make us accept that no work, belief, effort and naive love can change this world, because wars have always been and will always be, despite those efforts and the dedication of some individuals. Here I am, a person who has lost her home, and homeland, who is not a citizen of any country, not even a refugee, whose diploma and school certificate are in doubt, whose existence and identity are in doubt, want to say that the world has failed to make me believe that it is not worth fighting for and that all attempts are pointless. I want to wish people that whatever happens in their lives, they do not lose faith, do not give in to apathy, and cherish their memory and hope.

Vardan Hambardzumyan 

With all the heaviness weighing on our hearts, we say Thank You Lord, for having enabled us to go on hoping and working hard and not yielding to despair in the midst of darkness around us. Merry Christmas!