YEREVAN, APRIL 8, ARMENPRESS. Nearly $150,000 was raised by the Armenian community of Boston, USA during a sold-out gala Friday night for Anna Hakobyan’s City of Smile charitable foundation at the Westin Hotel in Waltham, the Boston Globe reported.

Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, was in attendance of the event as part of her visit to the United States.

Hakobyan is Chairman of the Board of City of Smile, the Yerevan-based charitable organization that helps children with cancer in Armenia.

“In wealthy and developed countries, cancer is just a disease, but in many less-developed countries, it is equal to a death sentence,” Boston Globe quoted Hakobyan as saying in her remarks.

Around 450 guests attended the event, including Ambassador of Armenia to the United States Varuzhan Nersesyan, Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, designer Michael Aram, artist Arpi Krikorian and others.

 “I dream to establish . . . a hospital in Armenia which has all of the necessary drugs and techniques so no parent has to take their child to Europe, Russia, or the United States. My dream is that our children stay at home in Armenia and receive treatment in close proximity of their houses”, she continued.

Burlington resident and event co-chair Cynthia Kazanjian — who said City of Smile hopes to appropriate the St. Jude Children’s Hospital model in that it wants to ensure children in Armenia receive treatment regardless of family income — likened Hakobyan’s stature in Armenia and with the Armenian Diaspora to that of former US First Lady Michelle Obama.

“She and her husband, who was elected in December, are trying to build a new Armenia and for the first time, the people there have hope. For a long time, people were either very poor or very rich, with no middle class,” Kazanjian said. “With new leadership, that is changing. It’s very exciting.”

Boston is one of five cities Hakobyan is visiting on a 17-day trip to the United States. While in Boston, she also met with medical professionals and students at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, visited the Armenian Heritage Park on the Greenway, and met with Armenian dignitaries for lunch at Union Oyster House. She also visited the Armenian Museum of America and St. Stephen’s Armenian Elementary School, both in Watertown.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan