GOALS encourages communities to transform societal norms into equitable values. Sport enables them to push for discussions around gender equity in marriage, leadership positions, and opportunities in a way that other mechanisms don’t allow through on-field games, soccer matches, and cross-cultural events.

Our main challenge in 2019 was to create demand for girls’ sports teams in the regions and villages of Armenia. We are proud to say that we have accomplished our mission. But with this accomplishment comes the new challenge of meeting that demand.

For 2020, at GOALS we seek to empower #everygirl in Armenia to find a pathway to an alternate possible future. While we have already impacted over one thousand girls by allowing them to unlock their potential through sports, we still have a long way to go. With your support, we will be able to expand our reach to many more villages in the regions of Armenia, revamp our sport for social impact curriculum and truly live into the movement that we have ignited.

#Everygirl deserves the chance to shine, play, grow. With GOALS our girls develop a voice, one that will carry them through life as the leaders they are born to be.

Your donations will go directly towards the expansion and operations of our Leagues in Tavush and Gegharkunik regions. Costs include uniforms, sports equipment, travel for teams to practices and games, coaches training, coordination and staffing associated with the Leagues.

Nor Luyce aims to provide girls the means to become self-sufficient, healthy, globally aware young women, who have set personal and career goals and who have created an action plan of how to achieve them. Our program was developed to improve self-esteem, self-reliance, and a sense of community and then build on these skills and potential. We believe in empowering teenage girls from orphanages and low-income families to build a community of strong, thoughtful, creative young women who are the future of Armenia.

In order to improve the future and career opportunities for girls from socially disadvantage families and foster cares, we prove a 3-phase, 3-year mentoring program that impacts approximately 60 girls a year. Currently, we are seeking funding for our first phase, which will provide a mentoring to 20 new Nor Luyce beneficiaries, aged 13-14 raising the number from 60 to 80.

Our Mentoring Phase program covers 11 months, during which 20 girls, aged 13-14, from socially vulnerable families and foster care receive mentoring. Each mentor-mentee pair meet approximately 40 times for individual meetings as well as partake in 20 group meetings. During our mentoring phase, we also focus on empowering participants to become active community members through service activities, cultural events, and building leadership through various responsibilities such as presenting information to their peers and other organization members. We also offer tutoring services for any participant who is struggling academically.

In order to decrease the likelihood that girls will be trafficked or married off at a young age, we strive to provide teenagers (13-14 year old) with a positive role model and a strong connection with other girls and prominent community leaders. We focus on career aspirations and how to create the best version of themselves, using the traits, skills, and strengths the participants already have. We also believe, that in order to empower young girls, we need to have a comprehensive approach to their development, as such following the first phase we then focus on skill-building trainings, career development, and offer scholarships for higher education. As of now, we have seventeen girls currently involved in higher education institutions, two more girls have already graduated from colleges and universities and now they work with their profession. On top of these, we have one mentee who graduated from a college which she had to admit because of the inforce of her parents, however, she could find the inner strength to change her profession and pursue the degree that was close to her heart.

More than 2,700 people live in the isolated border community of Artsvabert. The village is in desperate need of a second kindergarten to accommodate two additional groups of children (60 total), as the current existing kindergarten is full. 

Near the primary school in the village, there is an existing building that needs a complete renovation including new roof, windows, doors, kitchen, bathrooms.  In addition, work will be completed to the entrance to create a safe and convenient entry to the kindergarten.  Once renovated, this building would easily house two additional groups of kindergarten aged children. 

Following the complete reconstruction of the new kindergarten, new furniture and kitchen equipment will be installed.

Nor Luyce works with young girls, ages 14-17, from two local orphanages and/or from poverty stricken families from Gyurmi, Armenia. Under the direction of their Executive Director, Shoghik Mikayelyan, the program provides their mentees with positive roles models and emotional support. The reduction of isolation is provided by mentors and by field trips, which expose the children to various work and educational settings. In addition, Nor Luyce’s program emphasizes the development of educational and career plans. They are now at the stage of either beginning or continuing to help implement each older child’s plan for higher education. Each child has also either completed or is in the process of completing a career plan, which includes the most appropriate type and place of higher education.

Nor Luyce is trying to provide Marine, a young girl from Gyumri, with a scholarship that would reduce her out of pocket costs towards her education. Lusine lives at home with her father, mother, sister and brother. Her parents are farmers. At times Marine’s father leaves for Russia to find a job. Their monthly income is 48000 AMD which is not enough to take care of the family and pay the tuition fee of Marine who has just entered University. Marine graduated from the school with high performance. During her free time, she draws and read books. She has been a part of Nor Luyce NGO since 2016. She has successfully finished Mentoring Phase, Skill-Building Phase and now she is in the Scholarship phase. Marine has been very passive, shy and closed-off, and she had fears of expressing her ideas. However, thanks to the great work that her mentor did, Marine became very active, she takes part in all the group meetings and actively expresses her ideas. She has been volunteering her time at the organization scanning and filling out budet documents. The requested scholarship funds will help Marine continue her studies and cover the costs of her tuition, uniform, books, stationaries, winter clothing and her transportation fee for one year.

Արծվաբերդ (Artsvabert) is a town in the Տավուշ (Tavush) province of Armenia, which shares a 34km long border with Azerbaijan. Artsvaberd is located in a particularly remote and isolated part of Tavush.  Artsvabert has a population of almost 2,600 people living in 500 homes.  Most of these homes only receive water once every three days for one hour.  The lack of enough clean water has resulted in the absence of basic household conveniences, thus making life in Artsvabert difficult for its population.  The implementation of the Artsvabert Water Pipe & Reservoir Renovation program will provide daily water to the majority of the households in Artsvabert.

Nairi Krafian, a young Armenian-American volunteer has established a project called Oknooshoon in Armenia, which is literally a hybrid of the words help (oknoutyoun) and dog (shoun) in Armenian. As a pre-veterinary student who is passionate about both her homeland and animals, her goal is to improve the public perception, and in turn the quality of life, for rescued dogs in Armenia. Nairi has partnered with The Paros Foundation in order to introduce dog therapy in Yerevan, help provide education to improve the public perception of stray and rescued dogs and minimize their poor treatment.

Oknooshoon aims to improve the human-canine bond in Armenia, to benefit both populations simultaneously. This project will implement animal therapy for children in need with rescue dogs trained as therapy animals. Phase one of Oknooshoon’s Animal Therapy Program was a pilot in which the therapy dogs were trained as adults, lived at the shelter, and were handled by shelter personnel. Phase two is a second pilot in which rescue dogs will be trained as puppies, raised and handled by Oknooshoon employees in a home. This change will create a more sustainable and effective program, with the dogs being trained at a young age, living in clean homes, and receiving individualized attention. Phase two will also include research to determine the effectiveness of this therapy method for children, education to improve animal welfare, and efforts to strengthen Oknooshoon’s team and business model.

$24,000 is needed in order to fund this project. The costs include handler training education, dog training supplies, transportation, veterinary care, administrative supplies, employee compensation, and organizational development expenses. In addition, Nairi will be attending the Watson Institute Program in Colorado in order to improve and expand Oknooshoon’s capacity.

The National Poetry Recitation Contest (NPRC) was created in 2010 by a Peace Corps Volunteer and her Armenian counterpart living in Hrazdan. The goal of the National Poetry Recitation Contest is to create an opportunity for Armenian students in grades 7-12 to enhance their spoken English, critical thinking and public speaking skills by studying and reciting poems and speeches in English. Students also develop a valuable peer network of fellow English speakers from all over Armenia.

Kurtan is an isolated village with 1,825 residents in the Stepanavan area of Armenia’s Lori Region. The facility is housed rent free in a building, which also houses the village administration.

The Medical Center consists of four rooms (only two of which are currently able to be used) totaling approximately 770 square feet. The Center needs a new roof over its portion of the building, new windows and doors, a bathroom and a heating system.

Any partial funds received for this project will be first used to replace the damaged roof. Then funds will be allocated to the remainder of the renovation of the space. The Paros Foundation team will work with the village administration to ensure that they support the project in as many ways as possible including donated materials, free labor and/or support services.

It is anticipated that the repairs to the medical center will take approximately 3 months depending on weather conditions.

More than 1,200 children live in Armenia’s 15 orphanages. These facilities provide for the children’s basic needs, but their limited budgets do not allow these children to participate in visits to popular historical sites, an amusement park or concert, or attend a cultural event.

Armenia’s orphan children should have the opportunity to experience popular cultural events, exhibits, and excursions in Armenia, or simply have a fun afternoon or activity that they normally would not be able to experience. Many different activities and excursions can be organized for these children. The extent of the activity or trip is directly related to the sponsorship amount. For sponsorships amounts between $250 -$750 approximately 20 children and an appropriate number of chaperons will be able participate in a memorable activity. Please consider supporting multiple excursions for these children.

The Paros Foundation staff and volunteers will organize and oversee the excursion/activity. Opportunities to sponsor excursions for orphanages serving both disabled and non-disabled children exist. Whenever possible, our staff will work with the destination for the excursion to secure group pricing and/or discounts.

Recycling in border villages in the Tavush region is currently extremely limited; as a result, plastic and other trash often goes uncollected and liters the communities. When it is collected, the waste is often put into landfills or it is burned.

The Paros Foundation seeks to partner with the Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development of Communities NGO, or ‘ISSD’ to implement a small scale recycling initiative in ten border villages in the Tavush region, with the hopes of eventual expansion. The proposed project involves going to several schools and providing specially marked recycling bins for paper and plastic. The children will then be educated on the benefits of recycling and why it is important. In order to provide incentive, the school whom collects the most recycling will receive a prize of their choice up to a certain cash value. Schools will be given approximately 2 months to collect the recycling, when it will then be picked up and transferred to the proper recycling facilities.

The project’s ultimate goal is to educate communities on recycling, and give them the opportunity to try it themselves. The project and related school trainings will be conducted in two trips.

If after the two month contest period the project is considered successful, Paros will seek to expand into more schools in the Tavush region.