Great NEWS!!!
GREAT NEWS everybody! The organic chicken farm project for the Gevorgyans has been FULLY funded! I’d like to offer a special thanks to a donor who made the single largest contribution (over half) on behalf of Helen Saribekyan and Alexandra Melikian of Phoenix, AZ in the name of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona. Their generosity has made waves in Sevan, Armenia for a family in need, as did all the other contributors’ benevolence. This didn’t happen through any one person’s efforts, progress was made through individuals putting the word out, and giving whatever they could. I’d like to offer a special thanks also to the following donors:
Stella Aslibekyan – Boston, MA
Jason Calligas – Shreveport, LA
J. T. Gottwald – Goochland, VA
Nelli Martirosyan – Glendale, CA
Jessica Zapiain – Newport Beach, CA
Susan Nix – Fort Worth, TX
James Lawson – United Kingdom
David Rutledge – Fort Worth, TX
Chad Horany – Fort Worth, TX
Paul Sookiasian – West Chester, PA
Lucy Haskell – Lancashire, United Kingdom
Armen Yesayan – Glendale, CA
Sergey Babayan – Burien, WA
Cassandra Chatwin – Manitoba, Canada
I’d also like to thank the following organizations: Armenian Apostolic Church of Arizona, Armenian Students Association, Armenian Professional Society of Los Angeles (www.apsla.org), Made In Armenia Direct (www.madeinarmeniadirect.com), and Rassai Interactive (www.rassai.com).
And let’s make that a very special thanks to Rassai Interactive, for not only hosting this site, but also for contributing generously to this project; take a minute to check out their website and see all the amazing things they’re doing with digital communications and interactive technology!
The Gevorgyans are overjoyed, and so am I, frankly. All of you who made this happen through your time, consideration, and/or donation have done a really good thing. Selfless, compassionate, kind acts echo in time and live within the lives and hearts of individuals, and the lives that lead out from, and through, theirs, unfolding into the broader scheme of things. You never know what an act of goodwill can lead to down the road. You all have placed a measure of good on the scales, and that’s really all it takes to make the world a better place. Doing a good deed, when one has the chance. So all of you who could, and did, thank you. It all comes down to people: helping each other, having compassion for each other. Your efforts are inspiring – THANK YOU AGAIN!!!
And that’s not the last of it, by any means. I’ve been busy while waiting on the funding for this project! We’re midway through the Gegharkunik Marz Independent Media Empowerment Project, funded by USAID through the US Embassy. The project is going well; having trained the editorial staff of the three print vehicles, they’ve really come into their own in terms of product and promotional design! Here’s a sample of the promotional advertisements they put together:
The Sevan Newspaper is the organization I’m working with in implementing this project. They also have two other projects I’m facilitating for them: a Eurasia-funded market research project and a gender issues in an emerging democracy project. The Eurasia-funded project is coming along well, and we’ll start with the second round of market research, focusing on the Sevan Metropolitan Statistical Area at the end of July. The gender issues project is in the planning stages; we’re still seeking out funding. The project will establish a year-long training seminar series for women in the Sevan metro area to address gender issues in an emerging democracy. It will seek to empower women through case studies, a hosted lecture series, and capacity building with a focus on: communication skills, organization skills and project design, development and management skills. We will also focus creating a complex community system leveraging the women’s groups to create more civically active gender-oriented stakeholder groups. One of the problems in communities throughout Armenia is the lack of knowledge about how to enact change: how to organize, how to be Agents for Change, identifying what resources are available, and just generally how to collaborate to find solutions that address problems that have an overall commonality. The project’s curricula focuses on social and economic improvements as well…it’s a detailed project plan and difficult to summarize. The concept paper alone was six pages.
Still working on marketing and promotion for the Harsnaqar Hotel Complex & Waterworld and it’s going really well. We opened the Sevan artists’ cooperative outlet in the main lobby of the hotel complex – we even racked up some decent sales in the first week of operations! I’ll keep you updated on how that goes – the artists’ cooperative is really excited, and I’m excited for them. They’re turning out amazing work.
I’ve started consulting with an IT development company in Yerevan, as well. This is a really exciting business relationship for me, as they’re an incredibly dynamic Armenian-owned IT company. They’re one of the largest IT companies in Armenia, and ISO certified; they have an incredible corporate culture (which is unique for Armenia), incorporate best practices and progressive work process methodologies, and so on. Anyway, the relationship is constantly evolving and I’m helping out any way I can – it’s good to see them succeeding. Check out their website at www.instigatedesign.com.
I hosted a friend of mine from Milan, Italy who donated a week of her time to speaking with Armenian youth organizations, youth-oriented NGOs and a few educational institutions. Silvia Raldi is an assistant banker with Banca Leonardo Group, based out of Milan. Silvia donated both her time and money to speak with young Armenians about the European Union, the European Council, issues in business in Europe, banking and finance practices, gender roles and issues in Europe, and a variety of other topics of interest. She hosted lots of questions, and I was really amazed with the positive reaction she got at every organization we were hosted at. Here’s a few pictures of her trip here:
I’m also working on a proposal for a large grant for the Armenian Caritas organization, in conjunction with another volunteer, Elizabeth Pou (another business enterprise development volunteer). This is probably one of the most exciting things I’m working on, but I’ll wait to fill you all in on the details. After we pass the first stage (Elizabeth just submitted our concept paper), I’ll give you all a full report on what we plan on doing.
I’m working with another business in the capital, The Castle Learning Center, which is a really dynamic English language center for Armenian professionals. I advise them on some marketing- and branding-related issues, as well as host groups of Armenian professionals in the capital in group discussions. Last week we discussed globalization, and some of the changes that are happening in Armenia, development-related issues in the economy, etc. It’s always so amazing to encounter such bright, motivated and enthusiastic working professionals. They give so much hope here for a bright future.
I also wrote a Rural Youth Leadership Development and Empowerment Project, which will be a year-long project focusing on developing village youth, personally and professionally. The training program will involve five main spheres of civic education: Human Rights (constitutional rights, electoral rights, legal rights and labor rights), Life Skills (communication skills, social skills, leadership skills, decision-making skills), Health (gender issues in health, smoking/alcohol abuse, healthy lifestyles, coping with stress), Business (project design & management, how to set up a small business, how to write a business plan, how to find business help & advice, issues and opportunities in rural development), Civic Skills (role of NGOs in Armenia, how to form formal and informal groups to address community needs / problems / opportunities, civic awareness and community analysis). The project will take groups of promising youth from each village area and involve them in training other areas, and participate in a competition that will allow them to address a community need or problem through designing a project that fits within a certain budget parameter. These projects will be judged and the winner will receive funding and implementation support for their project within their community. We are in the process of submitting the grant to various organizations to seek funding.
I’m also working with the Sevan State College to start a business resource center for their students. I’m writing a separate grant to see if we can outfit a room for them with computers, printers and a scanner, an English-language lab, books (business-oriented, and general reading), desks, etc. They have such terrible facilities; I’d love to give those students something to work with in developing a professional career.
And on, and on, and on. I know how tedious these updates can be at times; if you’ve read down this far, you are to be congratulated. In sum: I’m busy and doing great.
And don’t forget, even though we’ve wrapped up the funding drive on the organic chicken farm, there are always ways you can chip in and help people here. Check out the Needs Page on this website to see how! We could really use your donation of clothes, laptops and a sizeable shipment of books. Please contact me if you think you could help with any of these items. Speaking of which, I also need to squeeze in another big thanks to Stella Aslibekyan for her donation of some women’s professional attire. Thanks Stella, it’ll be put to good use!
Hope all is well – I’ll update again soon.
Best,
RWD