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Starting from March 2012 a series of trainings on the topic “New approaches and practical opportunities for community sustainable development” are being conducted in 8 beneficiary communities on the initiative of the NGO “Women for Development”. The trainings were organized in the frames of the project “Community mobilization through increasing participation, healthy lifestyle and peace education in Armenia” with the goal to raise the communities’ mobilization around the most interesting and up-to-date for the rural population issue.
The trainings are held by an experienced specialist, ecologist Gevorg Petrosyan who is the coordinator of Gyumri “Orhus” Center.
These trainings also have the goal to help the farmers to run their household without many expenses by raising the fertility of the soil and to get ecologically clean products. During the meetings G. Petrosyan passed practical advice on the harvest cultivation to the participants, correct use of fertilizers and chemical weed-killers, getting rid of different cultures’ diseases, implementation of new agricultural methods and technologies, rising and cultivation of new cultures in the villages. Small movies and recordings were shown to the participants on all the topics involved in the seminars.
All the conducted seminars were followed by hot discussions and disputes. The participants of the training had different response to the topics under discussion: some preferred to remain true to the traditional way of running the household, others expressed initiative to use the new methods proposed by the specialist.
A practical guide “Conflict Peaceful Resolution Education in Schools” with attached posters was published in March 2012 in the frames of the project “Peace and Conflict Peaceful Resolution Education in Schools” being implemented by the NGO “Women for Development”. The guide is a unique methodological manual, which will help the public school teachers carry out their class leading hours on the issue of conflicts peaceful resolution. The guide can also be used by non-governmental organizations functioning in the sphere of peace education, students of pedagogical universities and all the specialists and individuals who are interested in the issue of peace building and conflicts peaceful resolution.
The guide consists of 2 parts: “Conflict management”, which includes the following topics: “What is a conflict? Escalation of Conflict”, “Styles of Behavior in Conflict Situation”, “Conflict Peaceful Resolution Skills, Commandments and Ways”, “Conflict Peaceful Resolution Education through Peer to Peer”. The second part of the guide includes several successful examples of the class leading hours held in Gyumri schools based on the manual “Peace and Conflict Peaceful Resolution Education in schools” published by the organization back in 2008.
Starting from July 2011 a project “Restoral of Forgotten Traditions” has started in Goghovit Community Center by the efforts of the Community Center Officer, volunteers and activists. In the frames of the project the national holiday Vardavar is already restored and celebrated. The holiday had not been celebrated for already 50 years for objective reasons.
On February 24 an event devoted to St. Sargis was organized in the Culture Center on the initiative of the Community Center Officer and volunteers. During the event the traditions of old Armenian wedding and holding St. Sargis celebration were presented. The young people of Goghovit presented to the audience preparations for weddings in the past, the old traditions that are no longer kept, for example, cooking the traditional gata (Armenian cake), singing the praises of the bride, the bride’s dance at the wedding, etc.
As the organizers of the event mentioned, the goal of the event was to mobilize the community through such events and to restore the forgotten traditions thus keeping Armenian culture and the local colour typical for each community.
In the same community work is being done to restore celebrations of all Armenian holidays, based on the memories of elderly people, to gather the traditions, songs, etc and publish them in a separate booklet.
On February 14 one of the most popular Armenian holidays – Tiarnyndaraj- was celebrated in the village of Bayandur on the initiative of Bayandur Community Center officers. The participant children presented the idea of the day: where it comes from, how the holiday was celebrated in the past, what the jumping over the fire symbolizes, etc. They also spoke about the traditions and customs connected with the celebration of St. Sargis day.
Then the children made the fire – the symbol of the day, and the celebration went on around it. The melody of the traditional musical instrument – parkapzuk – cheered the participants and created joyful atmosphere and a good mood.
At the end of the event the Community Center officers treated the children to the traditional holiday food.
Talks and discussions on the topic “Gender and Gender Equality” were held in Tsoghamarg and Arpeni communities on December 19, 2011. The discussions were held by the invited specialist Jina Sargizova. The meetings had a goal to get the participants to know gender issues, to differentiate the notions of gender and sex, to speak about the problems of gender equality in our country. Through numerous examples J. Sargizova presented the notions of “gender” and “sex”, showed that coming from our mentality, stereotypes, our perceptions of men and women we undertake certain roles, make division of work and all this is later expressed in the economic, political, social spheres of the country.
During the meeting the statistic data in the labour market of Armenia were discussed, which show gender inequality and gender discrimination in this sphere. Gender equality is first of all a human right. Women, as well as men, have the right to live in descent conditions and a descent life, which is stated in RA Constitution.
The conclusions in both meetings were the same: empowerment of women and their involvement in all kinds of economic, political, management activities will become a basis for raising the social-economic well being and reduction of poverty on both personal, community and state levels.
The quarterly reporting meeting of WFD NGO beneficiary villages Community Centers took place on December 17, 2011, with the participation of the village heads and Community Centers responsible persons. This time the meeting was a holiday one and had the goal to summarize the joint work, achievements and successes of the WFD NGO and beneficiary communities, as well as to discuss future plans and suggestions.
First of all the President of the NGO WFD Gohar Markosyan thanked all the participants for their participation and active work. She appreciated the increase in the number of volunteers in the communities, which mostly supports mobilization and empowerment of the communities: “Community mobilization is the most difficult work and I am happy that our joint work is successful. Organization of events and participation in the work of the Community Centers on volunteer basis does not seem “strange” today. Our goal is to have a mobilized community. Our community is our home, and we must build it with our own hands. Even if we expect assistance from outside, we have to participate in it and have our contribution in all the issues,”- mentioned Gohar Markosyan. The village heads present at the meeting in their turn expressed their gratitude to the NGO WFD for involving their villages in the project: “… I would like to thank you for presenting us with such a Center, because it has really changed a lot in our community. Community Center has made the routine life of the village more alive. We are like one family now, and let this family grow and empower…,” – mentioned Hovsep Tonoyan, the Head of Tsoghamarg community.
“It is not a secret for anyone that the communities are getting empty today, the young leave villages. This is a pain of all of us, and I am very happy that the NGO “Women for Development” is trying to be useful for us, to assist the young. I would very much like to come to a situation when no outside assistance is necessary, when due to our joint efforts we will be able to stand on our feet and empower our communities…”- said the director of Torosgyugh school Garegin Hakobyan.
During the meeting the responsible persons for all the Community Centers presented their reports for the period October- December, discussed the work carried out and achievements, mentioned the positive changes which are noticeable due to the activities of the Community Centers. “… I have always liked to organize different events, have always had interesting ideas, but as a nurse I was not able to organize such big events. Today it is not only me who gladly organizes events, but also a lot of volunteers that help me. Due to them we were able to revive the nice tradition of the national holiday Vardavar, which had been forgotten for many years…,” – mentioned in her speech Anahit Vardanyan, the responsible person for Goghovit Community Center.
“The Community Center helps to mobilize the community, to make the village more united. A vivid evidence to this is the event organized on September 21. The activities organized in the Community Center are also a good opportunity especially for young women and girls to show their abilities and skills, to be recognized as specialists…,” – mentioned in her report Armenuhi Arakelyan, the responsible person for Lanjik Community Center.
The meeting was held in a warm and friendly atmosphere; numerous ideas were expressed concerning making the links between the communities closer and more active.
On December 14-16, 2011 Mariana Juharyan, the Public Relations officer of the NGO WFD, participated in the 3-day training “Public Relations” organized jointly by Graduate School of Corporate Management and Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in Yerevan. The training was held by Alan Anstead, Chief Executive at Equality, Member of CIPR, CIPR accredited trainer.
The training had the goal to give the participants knowledge on correct and productive organization of public relations mainly in the sphere of business, to introduce the modern tools and development trends.
In the result of the training the participants gained such knowledge in the sphere of PR as links between PR and advertisement / marketing, what role the PR models and mass media play, the way PR develop, support, protect and raise the authority of an individual or an organization, how to establish links with mass media and journalists in the right way, etc.
At the end of the training the participants received corresponding certificates.
Since 1991 more than 3700 organizations in about 164 countries participate in the annual “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” international campaign, which calls to eliminate all kinds of violence against women. The Campaign starts on November 25 and lasts till December 10. The roots of the campaign are in the violent murder of 14 Canadian students in 1989, which also became basis for another campaign – “White ribbons”, which symbolizes refusal of violence towards women.
Starting from 2001 the campaign is also carried out in Armenia, and its goal is to emphasize once again the importance of the gender violence problem throughout the world and in Armenia, as well as to involve a bigger number of participants.
In the fames of the campaign the responsible persons and volunteers of the NGO “WFD” beneficiary communities participated in the training “AIDS problem and projects directed to its Prevention in Armenia” in the frames of the “16 days of Activism against Gender Violence” campaign in Armenia, which was conducted by Jina Sargizova, “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” Campaign Coordinator. The participants of the training got acquainted with the phenomenon of trafficking, as well as violence against men, who may become victims of trafficking and how to avoid it. Trainings against trafficking are especially important for the population of rural areas, because as Jina Sargizova mentioned, the urban population is quite aware of trafficking and, as researches have shown, a big number of the trafficking victims is at present rural population. Results of different sociological surveys about social-political participation in Armenia and gender discrimination against women were presented at the training. Numerous examples and figures were brought to show the intolerant attitude of the society, stereotypes and unequal conditions towards women. A separate topic of discussion became the issue of HIV/AIDS in Armenia and activities directed to its prevention.
The participants also had a chance to watch and discuss the film “The Butterfly” in memory of 19-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan, which is built on real stories about violence against women in Armenia.
Starting from October 2011 meetings on healthcare issues are being held in the Community Centers of 3 beneficiary villages of the NGO “Women for Development” - Tsoghamarg, Torosgyugh and Arpeni. The meetings are conducted by the responsible for the healthcare department of the NGO, medical doctor Karine Haroyan. Meetings on the topics “Principles of healthy lifestyle”, “Sexual maturity”, “Reproductive health, reproductive right and family planning”, “Stress, ways of its overcoming”, “Healthy food” are already conducted in the above mentioned Community Centers. All the topics under discussion are very necessary and up-to date, because the experience has shown that women and young girls do not mainly have knowledge on reproductive health and family planning, they do not know how to protect themselves from undesirable pregnancy and what kind of problems may occur in the result of abortions.
The topic “Sexual maturity” was especially interesting for the teenagers. This issue is very sensitive and personal in Armenia, and talks on these topics are generally not common between parents and teenagers especially in the villages. In the result teenage boys and girls almost have no knowledge either about their body or the changes and developments that take place in their organisms. Consequently, lack of information either remains open or is filled from untruthful sources.
These meetings are usually very warm and friendly. Active participation of the community members and numerous questions directed to the doctor speak about it. According to their words, all the topics discussed are very interesting and useful, and the way of their presentation is acceptable and understandable.
On November 7, 2011 the NGO “Women for Development” office hosted Armenian Representative of the German Goethe Institute Julia Kramer. The goal of the visit was to present books and didactic material to the school of Musayelyan community in Shirak regian to make the teaching of the German language in the school more interesting and productive. Taking into consideration the knowledge of Yerazik Torosyan, the German teacher of Musayelyan community secondary school and her devoted attitude towards her work, the President of the NGO “Women for Development” Gohar Markosyan, had applied to the Embassy of Germany in Armenia with a request to assist in the issue of providing German literature.
In reply to G. Markosyan’s letter the representative of the German Goethe Institute Julia Kramer visited Musayelyan community in October and got acquainted with the level of the German language teaching in the community, learned about the needs of the school for a better organization of the German language classes. And so on November 7 in the office of the NGO WFD Julia Kramer handed over to the director of Musayelyan secondary school and the German language teacher books, fiction, maps, video cassettes, as well as other material necessary for organization of events.
“One of the main goals of the Goethe Institute is raising qualification of teachers and promotion of the German language teaching throughout the world. I work in Yerevan too, it is a necessary to assist the teachers there as well, but I saw that the life is harder in the village and it is more difficult to organize the education on high level, and I am proud that this small contribution made by us will help Musayelyan community in organizing the teaching with more effective and modern methods,” - mentioned Julia Kramer.
A reporting meeting with the Community Centers’ responsible persons and volunteers from 8 beneficiary villages of NGO “WFD” took place on October 15, 2011 in Lanjik Community Center. The goal of the meeting was to present the Lanjik Community Center and its activities, as well as to summarize the work carried out in the beneficiary villages during the previous 3 months.
The President of the NGO “WFD” Gohar Markosyan presented the impact of the project on the community members, pointed out the positive changes which were caused by the activities of the Community Centers, appreciated the devoted and diligent attitude of the Community Centers responsible persons towards their work. She also spoke about organization of big events which support participation rising, as well as the work directed to involvement of big number of young volunteers.
The Community Centers responsible persons in their turn presented the positive changes caused by the activities of the Centers. According to their words, due to the organized events the unity has risen, as well as participation and interest of the community members towards the work of the Centers. Women have become especially active, they have expressed initiatives to solve certain problems by themselves. For example, according to the words of Arevhat Mkrtchyan, the responsible for Tsoghamarg Community Center, in the results of the trainings conducted in the Community Center the community has become more active, the women can raise their thoughts. They have expressed wish to put in good order the area of the kindergarten in spring 2012 and to create a nice and clean playground for the kids, to purchase some children’s games through financial contribution of the community.
The volunteers from Torosgyugh are going to clean the neighborhood of the village monument and organize tree planting on their own. Speaking about the activities of the Center, the responsible for Bayandur Community Center Sophya Sargsyan said: “A few days ago one of the parents asked me what I am doing that her kid loves me and listens to me more that her. Isn’t it enough? But if we speak more seriously, the changes in the community are visible for everybody. If previously it was unusual to revive our national dance and perform it on the stage, today the community wants it to be sustainable. We have to present the old in a new way and keep it. Besides, there are often guests visiting our village, and we are glad we have something to show…”
The Lanjik Community Center responsible Armenuhi Araqelyan mentioned that in the result of the work carried out during several years the attitude of the community towards the Center has changed a lot: “We have our place and role in the village, our words already have value, when I am asking something for the Center it at once comes true, people themselves express initiative to assist the work of the Center. So we have managed to make the community united, it is a very difficult work and I am proud we have managed to reach it…”
The responsible for Musayelyan Community Center Natasha Yervandyan particularly said in her report: “Due to the organized activities people speak about the Center with love. The village is united, peaceful, the parents express gratitude that due to the functioning clubs their children were busy in summer and were cut off the street …”
Highly appreciating and valuing the work carried out by the NGO WFD in the communities, the participants of the meeting came to one common conclusion: “Due to the our work people have become more peaceful and reasonable; they have acquired an ability to see good alongside with bad. A big progress is visible in the people in the sense of listening to each other, understanding and taking into consideration the opinion of others”.
The reporting date of October 15 was chosen on purpose. Rural Women’s International Day declared by UN has been celebrated on this day since 1997. A very nice event devoted to the day was organized by the Lanjik Community Center responsible Armenuhi Araqelyan and the volunteers. They presented to the participants the very important role that rural women play throughout the world –from ensuring food security and up to ensuring independence and sustainability of rural areas, but still they have a very low status and remain ignored by the society and the state. International Women’s Day has the goal to change this stereotype, to remind the society how much we all owe to rural women and how important it is to value and appreciate their hard work. All this was followed by the volunteers’ songs and dances. The members of Lanjik Karate Club also participated in the event presenting a show of Eastern martial art.
On October 13-15, 2011, the NGO “Women for Development” hosted mobilizers and activists from “Women’s Assistance” Centers, based in different regions of Georgia by “Sukhumi” Foundation. The goal of the visit was to get acquainted with the activities of the NGO WFD and to exchange experience. The guests visited the office of the organization, got acquainted with the activities of the NGO and current projects. The representatives of “Women’s assistance” Centers presented the projects being implemented by them, spoke about problems and obstacles in their work.
The guests also visited the Community Centers in the NGO WFD beneficiary villages of Goghovit, Torosgyugh and Tsoghamarg, got acquainted with the activities of the Centers, spoke to the responsible persons and volunteers of the Community Centers, discussed the approaches which they use in the sphere of community mobilization, current problems and difficulties. The Georgian colleagues gladly accepted the gender approach to the healthcare and healthy lifestyle meetings used by WFD NGO and decided to use it in their work as well.
On October 3-5, 2011, in the frames of the Organizational Development and Capacity building project 4 members of the NGO “Women for Development” participated in the 3-day training “Designing and Planning Projects”. The project is being implemented through financial assistance of ICCO, in the frames of which 6 members of the organization have participated in different trainings raising their professional skills and abilities. The above mentioned training was conducted by Sandrine Delattre, the NGO Management Association specialist trainer (Geneva, Switzerland).
The participants of the training were introduced to results-based management and its application in designing and planning projects, gained knowledge in classifying, analyzing, preparing the timeframe of activities, etc. Through exercises and group work the participants were given core knowledge on planning and programming projects using as main tools the Results-Based Management and Logical Framework approach.
On September 21 the whole world celebrates the International Day of Peace announced by the United Nations organization. A holiday that has already been celebrated for 30 years.
This year the UN Department of Public Information jointly with the Embassy of Federal republic of Germany, Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the NGO “Women for Development” organized an event on peace and democracy under the slogan “Peace is the mission of UN”.
The event was organized within the framework of the International Day of Peace and the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2000 - 2010). The aim of the event was to commemorate the values of Peace and Democracy, to highlight the achievements of the project “Peace and Conflict Resolution Education in schools” being implemented by the NGO “Women for Development”. The representatives of the NGO “WFD” beneficiary schools were also invited to participate in the event.
Maria Dotsenko, UN Department of Public Information Representative, greeted the participants of the event and congratulated them on UN International Day of Peace and the 20th Anniversary of Armenia’s Independence, mentioning that these two holidays nicely coincide. She said: “Peace and democracy are core values of the UN and are crucial for human rights. Every year on International Day of Peace people around the world advocate for peace, dialogue and harmony, and the young have big role in spreading democracy and peace”.
The Ambassador of Federal republic of Germany to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt also congratulated the participants on the 2 holidays and spoke about the Peace Education project being implemented by the NGO “Women for Development” in schools, saying that it should become an example for all the teachers and lecturers teaching their students conflict peaceful resolution methods.
Gohar Markosyan, President of the NGO “Women for Development” spoke in detail about the project “Peace and Conflict Resolution Education in schools”, the gained experience, achievements and future plans. She also spoke about the positive impact of the project quoting the written opinions of international experts, schools directors, parents, teachers and students.
During the event the members of “Peace Education” Center of Gyumri School after G. Byron and the responsible teacher Anna Harutyunyan also spoke about the positive changes that supported peace education, highlighted the influence of the education on both schoolchildren and teachers, spoke about positive changes in the school environment and the recommendations on implementing the project in more schools.
Appreciating the 10-year experience of the NGO “Women for Development” in the sphere of peace, Maria Dotsenko, UN Department of Public Information Representative, granted the NGO “WDF” President and the schools with the Certificate “Friends of UN” for outstanding participation and contribution to peace education.
The event was concluded by the opening of the exhibition “Peace through my eyes” with presentation of the works by Gyumri School N 20 pupils.
On July 7 and 8 the Community Centers’ opening ceremonies took place in 3 beneficiary villages of the NGO “WFD” – Tsoghamarg, Arpeni and Torosgyugh. The Community Centers were fully renovated and equipped by the NGO “WFD” in the frames of the project “Community mobilization through increasing participation, healthy lifestyle and peace education in Armenia” through financial assistance of “The Global Fund for Women” and EED (Germany). The municipalities of the above mentioned villages have largely contributed to the provision of the space and its rehabilitation. After cutting the red ribbon the community members had a chance to view the fully renovated and equipped Community Centers. Warm smiles and words of gratitude of the people present spoke about the successful start of the project. The President of the NGO “WFD” Gohar Markosyan greeted and congratulated the people present on having such nice and light Community Centers, presented the mission and the activities of the organization, the goal and the objectives of the project, spoke about the planned trainings, meetings and other activities. The participants held active discussions on the current problems in the villages, difficulties and needs. The President of the organization was sure that the Centers will help brisk up the difficult and monotonous daily life of the villages, will promote development of abilities of the young, especially young girls and women, will spur up community mobilization and development.
On June 24 a meeting of the Community Centers’ responsible persons and volunteers from 8 villages of Shirak region took place in Bayandur Community Center. The goal of the meeting was to summarize the work carried out in the Community Centers during the past 3 months. The Bayandur people prepared a small concert for the guests, during which the pupils of the Arts school appeared on the stage with their performance and with unique Bayandur musical instrument (parkapzuk) and dance. At the beginning of the meeting the President of the NGO “WFD” Gohar Markosyan and the Community Centers responsible persons presented the implemented activities, spoke about the work success, problems and ways of their solution. In their reports the participants mentioned the positive changes which were caused by the activities of the Community Centers and are obvious today in almost all the communities.
Due to the efforts of the Centers responsible persons and activists all the holidays are now celebrated in the villages, different clubs are established and are actively functioning, people are trying to revive many old and forgotten traditions. According to their words, community members actively participate in all the events and meetings, the doors of the Community Centers are always open for them. Sophia Sargsyan and Lora Hovhannisyan, the responsible persons of Bayandur Community Center, mentioned enthusiastically that they had involved even elderly people in their work to make the above mentioned concert more interesting. 80-year-old and even older grandmothers and grandfathers had taught their young to already forgotten dances and songs. The participants of the meeting approved the approach of meeting and reporting in different communities, mentioning that each community is interesting and unique in its own way and people have a lot to learn from each other. The next reporting meeting will be held in Janjik community.
On June 18-19, 2011 Arianna Caoilli had meetings in the Community Centers of the organization’s beneficiary communities and spoke about Australia’s history, culture, values and traditions. Arianna is only 24, but she already has an education in the sphere of politology, economy and trade. Her Master’s thesis, which Arianna is working on now, deals with the issues of Armenia’ economy development. The activities of the NGO “Women for Development” have interested the young girl born in the Philippines and educated in Australia and Great Britain, and this is her second visit to Gyumri. The meetings in Goghovit, Musayelyan and Krashen communities were held in a very warm and easy atmosphere. The participants asked the guest a lot of questions which dealt with the way of spending free time by the young in her country, gender equality, relations between men and women in the family and in the society. It was very interesting for the participants of the meetings to listen to someone who is well aware of not only Australian and Philippines’ culture, but also knows Armenia and its culture and who is proud of having a lot of Armenian friends, including the famous chess player international grand master Levon Aronyan.
On February 7-11, 2011, the Vice-President Liana Mikayelyan participated in the “Advocacy and Policy Influencing” training, organized by INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre) in Oxford, United Kingdom.
The training gave the participants an opportunity to get acquainted with the main principles of effective advocacy, gain basic knowledge on advocacy and mechanisms of running advocacy campaigns, work out strategy to achieve political changes through advocacy.
On May 30, 2011 the vice president of the NGO “WFD” Liana Mikayelyan conducted a training on the topic “Advocacy and Policy Influencing” for the team of “WFD” NGO, sharing the knowledge and skills gained at the training on the same topic in Oxford.
On May 18, 2011, a seminar “Role of Mass Media in causing conflicts and their prevention” was organized in the frames of the project “Community mobilization in Armenia through raising participation, healthy lifestyle and peace education”. The participants of the seminar were 19 members of “Journalists’ Clubs” established in the Community Centers of Shirak region 5 villages. The training was conducted by the Public Relations Responsible of NGO “WFD” Marina Juharyan.
The training included theoretical material about the main operations of mass media, rules and principles of journalists’ professional ethics, main genres of journalism. Numerous examples were discussed with the participants, small scenarios were performed, which mainly dealt with the issue of what kind of influence mass media can have in causing and prevention of conflicts.
The participants of the training also were introduced to main principles and skills of designing a poster. The participants were given brochures for young journalists p\which were prepared by the NGO “WFD”.
On April 27-28, 2011, a two-day training “Community Mobilization through the work of volunteers” was organized in the frames of the project “Community mobilization in Armenia through raising participation, healthy lifestyle and peace education” in the office of the NGO “Women for Development”. The participants of the training were Community Centers’ responsible persons and volunteers (totally 21 participants) from 5 project beneficiary communities – Goghovit, Lanjik, Bayandur, Musayelyan and Krashen.
The training which was run by the President of “WFD” NGO Gohar Markosyan, Head of the Educational Department Susanna Ghazaryan and Project Coordinator Armine Shiroyan, consisted of 3 parts:
- Community Mobilization and Volunteerism
- Conflict Management
- Watching and discussion of a documentary film dealing with the issue of healthy lifestyle
The participants were introduced to the concepts of community, why community mobilization is important, who volunteers and community activists are, what role they can play in raising the problems and needs of the community and in the development of the community.
The participants of the training presented the problems existing in their communities, what can assist the mobilization and development of their communities, what the obstacles exist and how they can be overcome. The role of the established by WFD Community Centers in the solution of the existing problems, organization of different events and mobilization of the population was specially stressed.
The participants got acquainted with the causes of conflicts, strategies of activities in conflict situations and ways of conflicts peaceful resolution. Group work was also carried out. The activities of the Community Centers planned to be carried out in the nearest 3 months and organizational issues connected with them were also discussed.
All the participants mentioned that the training was really very valuable and useful. They also suggested organizing trainings on the same issue for the population of their communities.
On December 9, 2010 School #2 Peace Education Center members visited the World Council of Churches Armenia Inter-Church Round Table Foundation. Karen Nazaryan, Executive Director of the Foundation introduced the activities and goals of the Foundation to the children, spoke about several projects and future plans and presented 3 main directions of the Round Table Foundation’s activities: comprehensive community development, development of the religious skills among colleagues and projects contributing to regional dialogue.
Established in 1996, the Foundation is closely cooperating with the Church and NGOs and is fighting against poverty by promoting sustainable community development and active participation of the Church in public and social issues and by contributing to the processes of formation and development of civil society in Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh.
Mr. Nazaryan also spoke about the role and mission of the Church in peace building and preservation. Children participated in active discussion of positive and negative aspects of the conflict. They also had the chance to ask questions to Karen Nazaryan and he answered those questions with pleasure.
Children also visited Mother See Holy Echmiadzin Museum and Saint Mesrop Mashtots Church in Oshakan.
On November 23, 2010 WFD NGO office hosted a meeting with the monitoring group of the peace building project implemented by Armenia Round Table Foundation, which included Roland Dittli, Program Officer of “Swiss Peace” and Nana Topuridze, Regional Director of EPER/HEHS. Tsovinar Ghazaryan, Educational Programs Officer for the World Council of Churches Armenia Round Table Foundation, Ara Galoyan, Program director of Shoghakat TV and several volunteers from the Round Table Foundation also participated in the meeting. Meeting participants learnt about WFD NGO and its peace education project being implemented during the past 9 years as well as the successes and lessons learnt.
It was very interesting for the guests to find out what kind of challenges the organization faced during the project implementation, what kind of challenges presently exist and how those challenges are being solved. Evaluation report compiled by the organization as the result of peace education project’s impact assessment provoked high interest.
The guests expressed their wish to participate in the lesson conducted at School #2 Peace Education Center. They highly valued the lesson conducted by the schoolchildren in accordance with “peer-to-peer” methodology. The guests were presently surprised with the Center’s members’ knowledge in conflict resolution and their skills in conducting such lessons.
On November 18 and 19, 27 teachers from 16 schools of Shirak province took part in the “Tolerance and Conflict Management” two-day training organized by “Women for Development” NGO. The training was conducted by Gohar Markosyan, “Peace and Conflict Resolution in Schools” Project Director as well as Susanna Ghazaryan and Julia Chaloyan, the organization’s Education Department Officers. The main topics of the training were the following:
- Tolerance.
- Peace and Conflicts. The Causes of Conflicts.
- Conflict Analysis.
- Strategy of Behavior during Conflict Situations.
- Conflict Resolution Skills, Principles and Methods.
The seminar was conducted in interactive way, group works and discussions were implemented; teachers came up with many suggestions and exchanged their experience.
All participants confirmed that this seminar was very valuable and that tolerance and peace culture education must begin from the teachers who must be role models for their pupils. One of the teachers mentioned that she is going “to take home with her” the skills and knowledge acquired during the seminar, as she believes that peace begins from the family and if there is an environment of peace and tolerance in each family, then it will certainly enter the school, community and the country...
With the goal of receiving more measurable results, the majority of the participants proposed to periodically organize such trainings and, if possible, to involve a larger number of principals, teachers and parents.
A World Without Walls 2010: An International Conference on Peacebuilding, Reconciliation, and Globalization in an Interdependent World” was held on 6th - 10th November 2010, in Berlin, Germany. The conference brought together an international collection of experts from international politics, diplomacy, academia, and civil society to discuss salient issues in the fields of peacebuilding, reconciliation, and globalization. The organizer of the conference is the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org. The President of “Women for Development” NGO Gohar Makrosyan was invited to participate in it. She presented the NGO’s experience in the field of Peace and Conflict Resolution Education as the best way for breeding tolerance.
Photos , Gohar Markosyan's speech at the Conferance
October 31 is the 10th anniversary of UNSCR 1325. With this goal OWEN (Mobile Academy of Peacebuilding and Gender Democracy in Berlin, Germany) has initiated implementation of the project “Visionews”. In the frames of this project the web-site of “Visionews” www.visionews.net started to function from October 31.
The Peace vision for the Caucasus from the point of view on “WFD” NGO is also represented in the above mentioned web-site.
A Peace Vision for the Caucasus
A study tour to Bosnia and Herzegovina was organized by German OWEN organization on October 8-17th, 2010 and Susanna Ghazaryan, WFD NGO Education Department Officer and OMNIBUS 1325 Peace Network member participated in the study tour.
The main goal of the study tour was to meet with NGO activists in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to exchange approaches and experience in the processes of promoting peace in local communities, to share the lessons learnt and to establish constructive dialogue between the organizations.
Study tour participants had meetings with the representatives of local NGOs, were hosted by “Together” cooperative where representatives of conflicting nations are working together, visited “CURE” feminist organization, Bosnia and Herzegovina offices of Heinrikh Boll Foundation and other organizations.
During the meetings Susanna Ghazaryan had an opportunity to represent WFD NGO’s experience in the area of peace education in Armenia and to disseminate copies of “Impact of Peace and Conflict Resolution Education on Students in Several Years after the Studies” Evaluation Report, which summarizes the experience of the past 9 years as well as the lessons learnt.
The results of the study tour are already visible. Just one month later we have received a proposal for collaboration from Croatian Coalition for Work with Psycho trauma and Peace organization.
On October 8, 2010 a working meeting of EED Armenian partners took place at “Women for Development” NGO office. The participants of the meeting were Karen Nazaryan, Executive Director of Armenia Round Table Foundation, Levon Nersisyan, Director of A.D.Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Centre, Anaida Allakhverdyan, Executive Director of “Education for Sustainable Development Foundation” (ESDF) and Gohar Markosyan, President of “Women for Development” NGO.
The meeting had several goals; the first one was to get acquainted in more details with the current project of “WFD” NGO, its achievements, to monitor a peace lesson in one of the beneficiary schools, to discuss the existing problems and ways of their solution.
The second goal was brief introduction of the “FM5 – Financial Management for Effective and Sustainable Programmes” training which was organized by “Mango” British organization from September 6-17, 2010 in Oxford, UK. WFD NGO Finance Officer Yeva Petrosyan participated in the training, and she shared with the participants of the meeting the gained knowledge, experience and the educational materials provided during the training. A decision was made to organize two-day training for the financial officers and accountants of the partner organizations. The issues of financial sustainability and fundraising of the organizations were also discussed.
Regional Conference "Financial Sustainability and Fundraising Practices of Civil Society Organizations in Eastern Europe" was held on September 29-30, 2010, in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Conference was organized in the framework of EED project “Dialogue and Capacity Building for EED partners in the South Caucasus through Seminars, Exchange and Consultations”.
The major aim of the conference was to assist the South Caucasian partner organizations in studying experience of their counterparts from Eastern Europe and initiate a reflection on strategies for financial sustainability of CSOs in three Caucasian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia).
CSOs in the Eastern European countries have accumulated certain experience for smooth transition from international to domestic funding. There have been developed some institutional mechanisms supporting the CSOs financial sustainability.
The conference was supposed to introduce some of the experiences and mechanisms functioning in different Eastern European countries and help local CSOs to identify the best practice examples best suiting to the reality of their country and society.
Our country was represented by Karen Nazaryan, Executive Director of Armenia Round Table Foundation, Hayk Minassyan, President of "Shen" NGO, Levon Nersisyan, Director A.D.Sakharov Armenian Human Rights Centre, Anaida Allakhverdyan, Executive Director of “Education for Sustainable Development Foundation – ESDF”, Mary Sargsyan, Programme Manager of “Syunik” Charity NGO, Gohar Markosyan, President of “Women for Development” NGO.
On September 25, 2010 a seminar on the topic of Gender, Gender Equality, Creation of Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities was organized in Kushchi village of Georgia’s Tsalka region, inhabited by Armenians. With the invitation of Ala Bejentseva, the President of “Women of Multinational Georgia”, the seminar was conducted by Susanna Ghazaryan, WFD NGO Education Department Officer and OMNIBUS 1325 Peace Network member.
Armenian women actively participated in the seminar. For them not only the language of the training was close-to-heart, but also their own discoveries of gender roles. The meeting was very warm and open. During the farewell, seminar participants expressed their hope to meet more often and to participate in talks on various topics.
On September 23 a meeting was organized with the school principals, vice-principals, “Peace Education Centers” responsible teachers of 16 schools of Shirak region. The goal of the meeting was to discuss the issue of the continuality of the peace education project in the schools of the region. The meeting was a non-official one. The school principals and teachers represented their approaches, suggestions on the continuation of the project, raised their concerns and existing problems. The opinions of everybody were similar: peace education at schools is very important and it is necessary to provide part of the class meetings hours to the Peace lessons and conflict management education. The President of the organization G. Markosyan congratulated those present on the publication of “Impact of Peace and Conflict Resolution Education on Students in Several Years after the Studies ”. “The result of our joint many-year-long work is summarized here, the answers to all the questions that have interested us for many years: is such education needed, are we on the right path and can the peace education have the positive influence and consequences that we anticipate,”- said G. Markosyan in her speech.
On September 5, 2010, the NGO “Women for Development” hosted a delegation from the Federal Republic of Germany, which consisted of Research Associates of Members of German Bundestag, a journalist, representatives of different political parties, the Protestant and Evangelistic church and EED (Evangelischer Entwicklungsdient e.V.). The guests visited one of the beneficiary villages - Goghovit, where the NGO “WFD” has established a Community Center in the frames of its current project “Creation of Healthy and Peaceful Communities in Shirak region” through financial support of EED and ICCO.
The guests had a meeting with the community members, got acquainted with their problems and received answers to their questions. They walked about the village and visited the ruins of the old church and the village medical point. They were also introduced to the details of the project being implemented by the NGO “WFD” which deals with the issues of Peace education, Conflicts Peaceful Resolution and healthy lifestyle.
The members of the embroidery club which is established in the Community Center and is run by the one of the volunteers prepared a small exhibition of works.
On May 15, 2010 Gyumri School #30 hosted Peace Exhibition with participation of more than 250 members of Peace Education Centers from 15 beneficiary schools of “Women for Development” NGO as well as school principals, teachers and parents. Through their drawings, posters and hand-made works schoolchildren tried to have their small contribution in the process of peace building, to present how they perceive peace and to prove that peaceful future depends on them. Schoolchildren’s parade marked the opening of the event followed by presentations of Peace Center activities in their respective schools delivered by the pupils who also spoke about their knowledge and skills. The entire event was accompanied by Centers’ members’ singing, dancing and reading out poems. Children created the Peace Wall, where they painted the palms of their hands, thus expressing their desire to live in a beautiful and peaceful world. The event finished with a circle-dance, which united all the participants.
Bishop Nshan, Spiritual Leader of the Center of Christian Education of Shirak Diocese was an honorary guest of the Peace Exhibition. He gave his blessings to the event and mentioned: “Jesus considers happy all those people who try to spread peace in their environment by teaching others to be kind and peaceful. With this regard “Women for Development” NGO is engaged in God-blessed activities by teaching peace and tolerance to children...”
Photos, TV reporting about Peace Exhibition
A Peace month was announced in all the beneficiary schools of the organization in February – March 2010.
The results of the Peace month were first summarized in Gyumri School #20 after J. Byron, where peace lessons, different events were organized in 13 classes, a contest of the children’s handwork was announced in the period of March 1 – 26.
The goal of the Peace month was to summarize the results of the headmasters’ classes held on the base of the manual “Peace and Conflict peaceful resolution Education”; to show the pupils’ gained knowledge and skills.
The organized lessons were interactive. The children got an opportunity to solve numerous conflict situations all by themselves, to perform small plays, to prepare posters on the topic of Peace, etc.
The third-year students of the English language department of Gyumri State Pedagogical Institute, who were having their practical course in School N20, took an active part in the Peace lessons. Future pedagogues Razmik Grigoryan, who used to be one of the members of “Peace Education” Centre of the same school and his fellow student Siranush Nalbandyan also conducted a Peace lesson. Caroline Ashton, Ph.D. Senior Research Associate of the organization “Search for Common Ground” also participated in one of the lessons.
The peace month ended with a round table discussion, the participants of which were teachers, representatives of the project staff, as well as Mesrop Ghalachyan, the Head of the National Institute of Education Shirak regional branch. All the participants of the discussion appreciated organization of Peace education in schools, emphasized the existence of the Manual for the teachers. All the class teachers who have organized open lessons in the frames of the Peace month were awarded with letters of gratitude by the NGO “WFD”.
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