Throughout Armenia, there are limited opportunities for girls to play soccer. Despite having a strong desire to do so, girls cannot find the resources necessary or sporting groups that make experiencing the game a possibility. In addition, organized sport participation has several benefits to youth development such as leadership skills, teamwork skills, confidence building and improved overall physical health. A team comprised of Peace Corps Volunteers, Paros volunteers and soccer coaches will organize three regional girls soccer camps that will culminate in a soccer tournament. Sponsorship of this project will help fund the camps and help raise awareness about girls’ soccer in Armenia.

On July 10th a Training of Trainers (TOT) will be held in Yerevan before the start of a week-long empowerment camp in Gyumri. All coaches and volunteers involved with the camp will attend the TOT; this will include three traveling coaches, and three coaches from each camp location as well as three Peace Corps volunteers and three Paros volunteers. The TOT will include specific aspects of the camp, including the logistics and overall organization, guest speakers, seminars, and drills. The Staff will be given the coaching manual and the curriculum developed by Coaches Across Continents.

The summer camp will go from 9am to 3pm every day. The daily routine will consist of a combination of traditional skill building drills, scrimmages, team building exercises, seminars on leadership, as well as a set of drills designed by Coaches Across Continents. Lunches will be provided. The last day of the camp there will be a “5 on 5” tournament between the attending girls. Local parents and the press will be invited to attend the last day of the camp. There will be a trophy presentation to the winning team.

The following is a brief project timeline:
July 10th – August 5th

GOALS Camp TOT – July 10th 10am- 4pm In Yerevan for major participants in GOALS camp

GOALS Camp Gyumri     July 17th- 22nd 9am-3pm
GOALS Camp Vanadzor July 24th- 29th 9am-3pm
GOALS camp Goris        July 31st- August 5th 9am-3pm

GOALS Camp Finale and Celebration – August 5th 3pm-6pm Inviting Peace Corps staff, Embassy, Paros, Football Federation, other sponsors, etc.

CAC Camp August 17th- 27th
3 days Yerevan –>
2 days COAF –>
1 day Dilijan –>
3 days Gyumri
GOALS Camp Tournament- August 8th-11th Tentative, in Hangavan

The Homeland Development Initiative Foundation (HDIF), founded in March 2013, is the structured and legal entity born of the Homeland Handicrafts project, which was started by HDIF Founder, Timothy Straight. Under our charter, HDIF works to initiate, facilitate, and nurture sustainable economic opportunities in rural and disenfranchised regions of Armenia.

Rural regions of Armenia are most severely facing the daunting problem of un- and underemployment. Due to the lack of sustainable income and limited access to skills development, a majority of men leave their wives and children in Armenia to seek work in Russia. Armenia has lost some 40% of its population to migration. The current economic structure of Armenian daily life in these regions is largely funded via the remittances sent by migrant workers. Those remaining in Armenia (mostly women) lack the opportunity and ability to meet basic needs for themselves and their families; with no way to control their sustenance, they completely depend on others for money. The Homeland Handicrafts project aims to address this issue by creating market opportunities for villager women to sell their handicrafts. Building on this foundation, HDIF’s work goes beyond providing a market for the sale of handicrafts; concentrating on empowering these women by endowing them with the education and necessary skills to be successful not only as independent business entities, but also in other spheres of life.

HDIF works towards creating and supporting sustainable independent business entities among our producers. We see training seminars as a vehicle to attaining the goal of sustainable producer independence. HDIF will work towards this goal by facilitating and leading seminars and workshops as the basic building blocks upon which to build up the needed knowledge. These workshops will cover a wide variety of topics associated with best business practices in a globally competitive climate. Again, the point is not only to pass on valuable information necessary to operate small businesses, but also to empower women (who are the most disenfranchised social group) in their daily life. We see this as HDIF’s primary role and one that has no time limitation or definite end. Addressing the need for such a program, as you can imagine, is not a cheap task to undertake; we are actively seeking funding to enable us to continue doing the work that is so necessary for the development of Armenia.

We intend to hold training workshops that will set the precedent and establish the standard for the development sector in Armenia. The first training workshop will introduce the women to the tax and registration structure in Armenia and the importance and process of registering as legal tax entities. This issue alone is complicated and information is not readily accessible to the public. Operating within the legal legislative and taxation framework is not the norm in Armenia; many business transactions continue to take place ‘under-the-table’. The ambiguity of tax laws and regulations and the lack of clear and accessible information, taken with the cultural aversion to conducting business ‘by-the-book’, means that the majority of economic activity is not regulated in any way. To spur economic development in Armenia, Western taxation and registration policies must be adopted. We aim to tackle this issue aggressively by establishing the standard of registered business operation within the Armenian legal framework. Future sessions will similarly endeavor to impart Western business practices in topics such as organizational structure, procedures for orders, production, delivery and payment, inventory and quality control, website and social media, designing for market needs, branding, budgeting, investing and micro-lending, grant writing and funding, scaleability, progress reporting, and more.

Seminars will be conducted as full-day intensive workshops once a month and will follow a general outline. To be equally accessible to all our producers, we will be holding training workshops in Yerevan. This means arranging for transportation of our producers from and to their individual regions and providing over-night accommodations to those for whom distance does not allow a one-day trip. We will also provide water and dinner at the seminar. Thankfully, we have a partner in Yerevan who will provide a conference facility free of charge in which we may conduct our workshops. Consultants in the field of the seminar topic will work intensively with HDIF to create supplemental reference materials for each workshop as well as a ‘lesson plan’ for the seminar itself. As both The Paros Foundation and AIWA propose the recording and dissemination of videos of our training sessions, we believe that HDIF can expand its reach of influence to a broader audience. Along these lines, we’d like to provide reference material not only tailored to the specific needs of our producer groups, but also to the broader needs of the Armenian people. The written materials will together make a handbook that, combined with videos of seminars, will serve the need for accessible and country-specific information and resources in Armenia. Because of the absolute lack in such resources, HDIF strongly believes in filling this gap to the best of our abilities and with the absolute best information. We see the seminars and reference materials that we will provide to become the standard and serve all interested parties across Armenia.

The seminar participants will largely depend on the topic of the workshop. HDIF will strongly encourage the following four people from each organization participate in all seminars: the President of each partner organization, the Head of Handicrafts, the project’s Accountant, and the corresponding Peace Corp Volunteer. In addition to these specified people, we will invite attendees who show initiative and commitment in their respective producer groups. HDIF will work with the administrators of each producer group to identify and target leaders and teachers within our projects who will eventually be able to continue passing on learned information to their cohorts. Producer individuals will be able to volunteer to attend any workshop and we will be as accommodating as possible to ensure all interested parties are able to participate. Subsequent workshops will target those who are specifically inclined and affected by the seminar theme. For example, web savvy individuals for the social media and marketing seminar, detail-oriented seamstresses for quality control workshops, and those who exhibit leadership qualities and communication skills for organizational structure seminars. By identifying individuals with strengths in particular topics and encouraging their participation, we will create a diversified and specialized work force within our producer groups with each individual being a vital part of the whole. We would ideally like to integrate interested parties from outside the HDIF producer groups who will benefit from the skills and knowledge provided by the seminars. As with our producers, we would publicly invite interested parties to apply for seminar attendance space. Because an increase in attendees would translate to higher costs, we would either need to incorporate that in our budget or look for other ways to subsidize the costs associated with outsider participation.

Seminar participants will be expected to implement learned skills in daily operations. Each seminar will present the goals of the trainings and elucidate the tasks required to achieve those goals. Following the first seminar on taxation, all producers under the HDIF umbrella who are not already registered as tax-paying entities will be required to do so. Other subjects to be covered include preparation of proper invoices, timely and consistent delivery, keeping accurate inventory counts, and more. With each month and each training seminar, our participants will be acquiring the skills necessary to operate as independent and sustainable units. Over time, as they obtain the tools needed to work in the regional and global competitive business climate, they will become increasingly more independent from HDIF and other organizations.

Each training session will build on the last to create a strong and cohesive unit of producer individuals and groups who are all on the same page with HDIF and the legal and business frameworks nationally and globally. As the groups are exposed to more training through HDIF’s process, business practices will improve to reflect the new skill sets. Information and knowledge dissemination and practical application of learned skills will be the primary measure of HDIF seminar’s effect on participants. Knowledge and implementation of concepts such as taxation, invoicing, quality control, organizational structure, etc. will enable and encourage producer groups to move away from the culturally accepted practice of ‘under-the-table’ or ‘black market’ economic activity and towards operations within the legal framework of the Republic of Armenia. By creating this kind of business climate in Armenia, our producers will set the standard for thriving and independent organizations. Additional benefits of the creation of a network among HDIF producers and among the Armenian community that works together learning from one another and teaching each other as a whole is a hugely important byproduct of organizing like-minded individuals. Networks are vital for success as cohesive groups can have a more immediate and more influential impact. Encouraging disenfranchised groups and opening the eyes and minds of citizens to possibilities that do exist and can be utilized will generate a ‘yes-we-can’ attitude that will work toward civic engagement and paint a favourable picture for investment. All of these outcomes are equally important and beneficial and will generate as a direct result of the economic, social, and community investment in training seminars.

The success of the seminars initiative by HDIF will immediately be visible and measurable through the day-to-day activities of our organization. For example, currently a majority of our producers do not know how to create a proper invoice, register inventory, perform under deadlines, and ensure consistency of production. HDIF undertakes all of these issues as well as many other ones. Seminars will set the standard at which all will be held to; and with each new learned skill, producers will take on new responsibilities.

HDIF’s broad-scope goal is the initiation, facilitation, and nurturing of sustainable economic development initiatives in Armenia. A tangible benchmark we are striving for is the creation of 1,000 employment opportunities within five years. Seminars serve as the fundamental foundation, upon which many avenues through which this goal can be attained are built. While traditional handicrafts creation and sale is a main vein, opportunities in tourism and events such as festivals also provide a rich opportunity for sustainable economic ventures.

The promotion and support of a ‘small-scale’ tourism sector (of which festivals are one part of) will expand the scope of influence to many more people, particularly those in the oft-forgotten and ignored areas of Armenia. The potential is great to provide an economic and moral boost to these areas and so is the need. The direct impact of handicrafts jobs will be magnified to include other job opportunities such as tour guides, bed and breakfast providers, cafes and restaurants, other craftspeople such as beekeepers, farmers, and those teaching visitors how to dance, make traditional regional Armenian food, activity providers such as hiking, bike riding, horseback riding, and more.

The creation and presentation of educational seminars will be of great use for all different sectors, which can be utilized in building Armenia as a sustainable economy. HDIF’s approach echoes the famous Silk Road- just as the silk road was comprised of many small points that together created the hugely successful and necessary route, so do we see the importance of all the sectors of influence (including handicrafts production and sales, festival events, and general tour packages) to build upon a solid and exemplary foundation of knowledge and business skills in order to create a strong and viable Armenian economy.

Side-by-Side aims to simultaneously address two very important needs in the human and civil development of the Republic of Armenia. At-risk youth do not receive the supervision, guidance and positive interaction needed to develop into productive, well-adjusted adults. In addition, throughout all social, economic levels of civic life in Armenia, a culture of volunteerism is not developed, encouraged and understood for its aggregate benefit for society. This holds true for both young people and adults.

Side-by-Side is a mentorship program adopted from Big Brothers Big Sisters model that aims to enhance youth’s psychological, social, and academic growth, while at the same time, keeping them away from risky activities. Side-by-Side will match carefully selected young, local professionals with at-risk youth for one year. Mentors and mentees will spend one-on-one time twice a month and participate in monthly group activites which will promote volunteerism through community service.

The goal of Side-by-Side is to advocote volunteerism in mentors and mentees through their one-on-one relationship and community service activities.

The one-on-one relationship with their mentor will help youth mature to be more self-sufficient, self-confident, and successful. Similar mentorship programs have a proven record of minimizing tendencies toward drug and alcohol use and aggression in young people. Additional benefits are seen in school attendance, academic performance, and overall attitude toward school. Peer and family relationships also benefit from mentoring (Tierney and Grossman, 2000).

For a mentor, the individual relationship will increase the mentor’s self-worth and confidence.

Monthly group community service activities will serve a vital role in helping children learn and understand community service and volunteerism, encouraging them to become life-long volunteers and contributing members of society. Both mentors and mentees will utilize their sense of volunteerism long after they leave the program and will most certainly pass on this culture. This project will instill within the youth and the mentors positive associations with community service and volunteerism.

Side-by-Side aims to serve a large group of at-risk youth and mentors. The pilot phase of the project will last six months. During this period, ten at-risk youth will be partnered with trained mentors. Half of the mentees will be children affiliated with a center (such as the Ghoghanj Children’s Center) and the other half will not be affiliated with any center and will be recruited from various communities of Yerevan. Mentors and mentees will meet no less than ten times one-on-one. Five group community service activities will take place in public locations that will both illustrate the value of volunteerism for the target group and the community at large. Public media activities and mid term and final program evaluations will also occur.

Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur is a border village with a population of 1,380 residents in the Bert area of Armenia’s Tavush Region. This community, whose territory connects with Azerbaijan, lives and works under a constant risk of sniper fire and renewed armed conflict every day. Along with the economy these difficult and dangerous times have also had a negative impact on educational advancement and school attendance. The primary school in the village was in need of major remodel in order to provide elementary and high school aged children the opportunity to learn in a clean, new and safe environment. This school, which has 180 children in attendance, is housed in three buildings of which currently two are in use.
The gym has been renovated through local sponsorship from the village. In 2015, the elementary school wing was completely remodeled with the generous contribution by Michael and Patricia Starzer (CO-USA) through our NKA School Remodel – Phase 1 project. The elementary school wing, including five classrooms on the first floor, the hallways and the boys and girls bathrooms, was remodeled as well as updates to the heating system, new lighting, new paint and new flooring. Phase 2 of the project, including renovations to six classrooms on the second floor, the adjacent hallway, the staircase and two bathrooms (middle and high school wing), was generously funded by Jean-Marie and Lori Atamian (NY-USA) and was completed in advance of the 2016-17 academic year. The wing that houses the cafeteria and kitchen, and the entryway of the school are all still in poor condition and in need of renovations.

Sponsorship of this project will facilitate the remodel of the third phase of this project including a full kitchen remodel including the cafeteria, furniture and appliances, and gas connection to the kitchen. In addition, the entrance of the school, the boys and girls locker rooms and the security office will be renovated. The scope of work will include new flooring, electrical fixtures and paint throughout, new kitchen furniture and equipment as necessary and new plumbing for the kitchen and cafeteria.

The Paros Foundation, with the help of generous donors Jean-Marie and Lori Atamian of New York, has already successfully renovated the Nerkin Karmir Aghbyur medical center and kindergarten, and provided five families with their own agribusiness for their economic development. These projects have had a huge impact on this community. It is of strategic importance to support these villages in their daily lives so that they may remain inhabitants of this village, mere footsteps from Azerbaijan.

The Shirak Center NGO, established in 2006, has been an instrumental organization aimed at helping Gyumri and its residents. Chairman, Vahan Tumasyan, and his staff have worked tirelessly for years fighting for the rights of impoverished residents, helping bring humanitarian aid and supplies to their families and helping shed light on their devastating living conditions. Furthermore, the Shirak Center NGO aims at bridging differences between local authorities and communities in Gyumri through coalition building and conflict resolution, and promotes homeless advocacy, and economic and social rights and civil liberties.

The Shirak Center NGO is also an important partner of The Paros Foundation and together we have successfully implemented several projects in Gyumri’s impoverished neighborhoods including the distribution of winter boots and coats for children, firewood for fuel to keep families warm and give them the ability to cook in the winter, identified and moved families out of domiks into homes and worked with children from these neighborhoods.

The Shirak Center NGO hopes to continue this good work and is in need of additional funding. Sponsorship of this project will provide the funds needed to allow Shirak Center NGO to continue to distribute firewood for fuel for heating and cooking. Gyumri’s harsh winters and extreme poverty has led to families burning trash to keep warm and cook food for their families. Shirak Center NGO will also use the funds in order to locate and identify the vacant domiks in Gyumri, purchase the domiks from their owners, demolish them and distribute the remaining scraps of wood to other families in need who are still living in domiks and condemned buildings. Demolishing these domiks has several benefits including raising the communities morale, returning land to its former use and providing firewood for fuel to impoverished families. Finally, some of the funds will also be used to promote the work the organizations does through marketing, social media and communications and administration costs.

Representatives of The Paros Foundation have visited more than 100 schools throughout Armenia. While some schools have either been renovated thanks to the Armenian government or as a result of the generosity of international donors, many remain in deplorable conditions and have little hope of being renovated in the near future. These conditions affect both the ability for students to learn, as well as the health of students and teachers.

Khndzoresk is a village in the South-East of Armenia to the south of the Goris – Stepanakert highway near Artsakh. Currently, the village school, which has 306 children in attendance and 20 staff members, does not have running water or functional restrooms. Students and staff share an outhouse-style squat bathroom with no working sinks.

The Paros Foundation will oversee the renovation of the school bathrooms including addressing such elements as windows, doors, flooring, lighting, paint, sinks, faucet and toilet. Phase 1 includes the renovation of three restrooms. Phase 2 will address the remaining four bathrooms. Furthermore, this project will include the installation of new water and sewer lines to the school building. Our partner on this project, the Armenian Network of America, Los Angeles Region, has already raised funding towards the new water and sewer line. The Armenian Network of America, Los Angeles Region will also help oversee the renovation process.

The Paros Foundation established the Debi Arach Children’s Center in Gyumri, Armenia on April 15, 2015 with the help of generous donors. The center, which provides 120 children each week the necessary academic, psychological, social and humanitarian support, has since been a source of positivity in this city. The residents of Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city have endured very devastating realities since the tragic 1988 Spitak Earthquake. More than 100,000 residents were left homeless, and plagued with unemployment and rampant poverty for years to come. In turn, the fate of children in Gyumri has also been affected. Dealing with the difficulty of finding means to feed and care for their families, many parents are unable to provide their children with the proper guidance, supervision, educational aid and the financial resources for them to excel in school and have successful futures. The Debi Arach Children’s Center, which in Armenian means “moving forward,” helps these socially vulnerable children through a holistic approach providing them with both humanitarian and educational support. The center provides counseling and group therapy with a psychologist on staff, homework help and tutoring for almost every subject the children learn in school including English, Math, Art/Design, and Computer classes. Additionally, they are served a nutritious meal everyday, helping them receive the calories and/or nutrients they would otherwise not have. Furthermore, the Center addresses a very important hygienic need by providing the children in attendance with supervised bathing facilities. The goal is to help hundreds of children develop a vision for a successful future, and to give them the skills they need to reach these goals. This project is impacting the lives of hundreds of socially vulnerable children by helping them gain the guidance and support they need in order to create greater future opportunities, and become successful individuals and good citizens.

To date, the center has already had several important successes. The children as a whole have gained several pounds since they have started attending, demonstrating their need for nutritious and consistent meals. Additionally, three children have been taken out of boarding schools and brought to our center and now live back at home with their families. Staff trainings have begun with an academic counsel of professionals from the United States and Armenia to ensure that the children are receiving the best care, treatment and methods for their development.

Currently the center is working on funding year two and raising additional funds in order to develop and add to the programs and classes offered with the ability to hire more educators, and get more supplies, and equipment. Funds will also be used to supplement daily activities with field trips to educational sites throughout Armenia, hold forums for guest speakers and provide educational and vocational training opportunities. $65,000 is needed to cover operating costs for the Center.

According to historical sources the village of Baghanis, currently home to 286 households and 955 people, was established in the fifth century and is situated in the Tavush region of Armenia. Baghanis also has a village school with 110 children in attendance. The village is adjacent to the Republic of Azerbaijan, sharing a 2 km-long border. Like many of the villages in this area, the village of Baghanis has also endured danger and suffering due to the war followed by frequent cease fire violations by Azeri snipers. Following the cease-fire, eight village residents have been killed, while six others wounded. In addition, the village encountered a sharp decline in the number of marriages and childbirths, and increased migration. Today, the residents make a living by farming and tending to their livestock. The village is actively trying to improve the quality of life for its residents and is in need of aid.

Baghanis is also home to a single medical center built in 1989, which serves the entire village population. The center is in poor condition and in desperate need of a complete renovation. Once renovated the clinic will not only be able to see to the villagers daily medical needs, but also attend to emergency needs of the local villages and soldiers on the border. Renovations will include a new roof, doors, windows, electric, plumbing, sewer system, flooring, heating, furniture and equipment.

The need for computers is imperative to the development of student’s future. Access to a computer and the Internet helps students obtain innovative skills allowing them to use modern means to complete their homework assignments and open the doors of communication for opportunities all across the world. Many schools, children’s centers, and orphanages are unable to provide access to computers and internet to their student’s due to the high costs of obtaining the items and monthly charges associated with Internet usage.

We hope to be able to purchase and distribute computers to schools, children’s centers and orphanages and give more and more students the opportunity to broaden their skills and abilities. Donations of new and used computers in excellent condition are also welcomed. Sponsorship of this project will include computers and Internet connection for a year for each computer purchased (or donated) for the chosen location.

The Tsap-Tsapik Music Education Program is aimed at developing inclusive education through music in Armenia. The program was founded by Sevana Tchakerian, whose approach and content is unprecedented in Armenia. Currently, there is no music education program for preschool children in Armenia, except occasional choir practice. The Tsa-Tsapik Early Music Education Program aims at introducing preschool children in Armenia to the musical world through a playful and diversified pedagogic approach. In addition, this initiative aims to educate children who are underprivileged, for geographical, sociological, physical or psychological reasons and cannot afford to attend music in private schools in Yerevan.

Through this program Sevana, who is also the Program Director, provides open instruction to everyone without discrimination, helps develop children’s curiosity for musical practice, while valuing them and giving them the opportunity to express themselves. Music researchers have found correlations between playing music and some of the deepest workings of the human brain. Music helps develop children’s language, math and listening skills, self-esteem, creativity, motor coordination, as well as relieves their stress, and is an excellent way to teach children with special needs. The program is more complete and focuses on the discovery of sounds and rhythms, instrumental exploration and body awareness, in addition to singing. To ensure the sustainability of the project, the priority is to empower the local teaching corps by sharing new teaching resources and working directly with both the teachers and the students via infield workshops.

Sponsorship of this project will allow Sevana to launch this program in seven villages during the 2015-2016 school year, provide training and instruments for those villages and help develop inclusive education in Armenia. The training she will provide during the one year will educate around 30 teachers and benefit 350 students. The tools provided to the teachers, along with regularly updated teaching resources, can be used for many years following the implementation of the program in a village. Sponsoring seven villages for a year means providing music education to more than 1750 children in Armenia within 5 years.

The program will run from September 2015 to July 2016 in the seven villages (kindergartens, daycare centers).

September-December 2015: biweekly training sessions and workshops in centers A, B, C and D.

January-March 2016: biweekly training sessions in centers E, F and G

April-June 2016: weekly follow-up workshops in all seven centers

End of June 2016: open house workshops, gathering with the communities