QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

Summer 2012, Issue 9

Benevolent

NGO

Syunik Continues Promoting Peace in the South Caucasus

from different ethnic backgrounds. This year a total of 105 participants representing Armenia, Georgia, as well as ethnic minorities in these countries, benefited from a variety of activities included in 2012 summer camp programs both in Armenia and Georgia. As all the participants were from regional cities and villages and had the same socio-economic status, it was not difficult for group leaders to promote a friendly environment and implement many team building initiatives. In addition to camp activities, participants in Armenia were also fortunate to receive free dental care provided by Syunik NGO in cooperation with Armenian Dentists Association in California. Nine dentists from the United States generously volunteered their time to help out regional youth with dental issues. A number of officials, including representative from HEKS-EPER visited the summer camps to greet the participants and monitor the process. We had the honor of having Mr. Gagik Mkheyan at the closing ceremony of the summer camp in Armenia. Mr. Mkheyan is the First Deputy/Vice President of the Armenian National Assembly. He extended greetings to all present and thanked Syuniks management for implementing such important cross-border initiatives. Below is a brief interview with Mr. Gagik Mkheyan, as well as feedback from camp participants.

Promoting peace among youth in the South Caucasus has been one of Syunik NGOs priorities since 1995. Throughout the years, with the help of our partner organizations, we have been able to bring together youth from different regions and develop long lasting friendships among them. This years peace summer camps were part of our efforts. This initiative was implemented within a three-year project which was launched earlier this year with the financial support of HEKS-EPER, one of our long-term partners. The main aim of this project is to develop effective peace-seeking behaviours among teenagers and youth from Armenia and Georgia, including ethnic minorities from both countries. This year we enlarged the scope of activities from only summer camp activities with teenagers as a target group towards more active involvement of youth leaders and yearlong activities. We also enlarged the project from involvement of NGOs from Armenia and Georgia gradually moving towards strategic partnerships with new NGOs from Abkhazia and youth from Abkhazia. Prior to this years summer camps, meetings were organized in Akhaldaba, Borjomi region, Georgia and in Yegheghis, Vayots Dzor region, Armenia. Two trainings were given to future summer camp group leaders; one training on Leadership and Facilitation, and the other on Conflict Mediation and Transformation. These trainings prepared leaders to facilitate their diverse groups and promote friendly relationships between teenagers

An Interview with Gagik Mkheyan, Deputy/Vice President of the Armenian National Assembly
Gevorg Matevosyan: Mr. Mkheyan, thank you so much for visiting our camp and taking time to meet us. What is your first impression about our camp? Gagik Mkheyan: The camp is situated in a nice area. Here there is everything for the children to make their life beautiful. Here I saw many happy faces and I realized that no matter which nationalities you are coming from you can make friendship even during 10 days. Gevorg Matevosyan: What do you think could be the impact of projects like this? Gagik Mkheyan: For me this kind of project aims to create peace in the region. This is a good opportunity for youth to make friends here as well as exchange their culture and traditions. Gevorg Matevosyan: And finally what are your greetings to the participants and the project team? Gagik Mkheyan: At first I would like to mention that I encourage this type of project which brings cultural convergence between nations. I would like the children to live in a peaceful environment. Also I would like them to do their best to live this life happily because peace is the basis of everything.

Talking to Camp Participants

We took time to talk to our camp participants and give them an opportunity to share their experiences with us. To our question what are some of the most exciting things in the camp we got the following similar answers: I like the children because we became friends during these days as well as I like the evening events. I like the games also, especially Plemya. I like the evening events and the children, as well as the game. I like that I made new friends. Now I know that I have many Georgian friends and we will be always looking forward to see each other again. We also asked the participants if they would like to be back in the camp one day if there was such opportunity. These are some of the answers we received:

Yes, I will because I have already mentioned that I made friends here. Yes, I will but I cant participate because I will become 18 next year. Of course yes, because I learnt a lot here. I would like to come back here for a good time I spent with my friends. One thing for what I will come back is the curriculum of the camp. Of course yes. If there is an opportunity I will take it because I would like to come back here. During these days we exchange our culture, we learn a lot from each other. The answers of these and other questions asked to camp participants confirmed one more time that nationality doesnt matter. What matters is the human being and we are all the same. We have more in common than differences and promoting peace among us is the responsibility of each of us.

Syuniks Partnership with Joint Civic Education Comes to Fruition

Practice Seminar in Hermon, Vayots Dzor Region: Fellows are on the Way to Become Masters in Volunteers Project Management In February, Syunik NGO agreed to be one of three local cooperating partners in Joint Civic Education for the Armenian country program. Joint Civic Education operates in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Russian North-Caucasus and the Turkish East-Anatolia and seeks to strengthen civic involvement of young people and cross-border cooperation among professional civil society actors. The five nationally run programs for young people include three training seminars in project management (Introduction, Practice and Evaluation) and provide fellows with the opportunity to design and implement volunteers micro projects within their local communities. The Introduction Seminar was held in Vanadzor April 22-28 with the help of the Peace Dialogue organization. The Practice Seminar was held July 22-29 in Hermon, Vayots Dzor Region with local support from Syunik NGO. The Evaluation Seminar will probably be held in Yerevan at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights in November. After the Introduction Seminar the fellows designed their projects. Then during the Practice Seminar in Hermon they put to use the knowledge and skills gained from the first seminar. Now having completed the Introduction and Practice Seminars, they are supported by alumni-mentors in implementing their volunteers micro-projects in the communities. For participants, the Joint Civic Education program is an extraordinary opportunity to increase the impact of their activities. During this seminar we do our best to increase the efficiency and quality of our projects in order to have a desirable and significant impact on our community, said Hasmik Sargsyan, one of the participants.

Training session

DAAD Summer School

This year the DAAD (German Academic Exchange SerSzenenhaft Theate group had its first performance at vice) summer school for students of the German language the ceremony which was well received by the audience. in Armenia and Georgia was held in Gitelik University in Vayots Dzor region. Similar to last year, Syunik NGO was again a local cooperating partner for the initiative. The summer school also benefited from cooperating partner Goethe Institute in Georgia. The summer school was opened on June 7th by HansJochen Schmidt, the German Ambassador in Armenia at the time. The closing ceremony took place on June 12th and was attended by many high ranking guests including Konstandin Obolensky, the Swiss Ambassador in Armenia, Bishop Abraham Mkrtchyan, the primate of Vayots Dzor Diocese, Tine Laufer, Head of DAAD Information Office and others. In addition to many The Szenenhaft Theater Group greetings extended by guests, the newly established

A New Social Service Center

Syunik NGO has opened a new Social Service Center (SSC) in the village of Taratumb, Vayots Dzor Region. The center will provide basic social services to community members in order to address issues that exist in the community. Establishing the SSC in Taratumb village was made possible with the support of EED, one of Syuniks long-term partners. The Taratumb SSC is the fifth in the region and will serve not only the members of the Taratumb community but also members of three neighboring villages: Aghndjadzor, Qaraglukh, Salli.

PUM Expert Frans Heldens Continues Supporting Syunik NGO

Syunik NGO with the financial support of HEKSEPER is implementing Rural Development Project (RDP) in seven communities of the Vayots Dzor Region. The aim of these projects is to improve the living conditions of farmers in the region through development of new income generating opportunities. RDP has four components: Agricultural Inputs, Agricultural Machinery, Capacity Building, and Market Access. Within this initiative, Syunik NGO has developed various collaborations in order to best implement the project and achieve desirable outcomes. One such collaboration was developed with The Netherlands PUM Senior Experts Organization. Last year, Mr. Frans Heldens, an advisor from PUM Senior Experts Organization visited Armenia and provided additional consultancy to our staff members who are involved in RDP. After seeing how much is being done to support local farmers in rural communities, upon returning to The Netherlands, Mr. Heldens found funds to purchase two types of elite apple plants and many hybrid rootstocks and sent them to Syunik. With the help of these plants and rootstocks, Syunik established a demonstration nursery and orchard. While these seedlings were a great addition to the local nursery in Vayots Dzor region and allowed local farmers to have access to high-quality young trees and hybrid rootstocks, this was not the end of the collaboration. Mr. Heldens also made it possible for Syunik NGOs RDP project manager and agricultural and marketing specialist to visit The Netherlands where they received first hand experience in the field of agriculture. Through this visit, RDP staff visited many different nurseries, gardens, greenhouse farms and berry orchards. RDP staff also met with one of the directors of Rotterdam Cooperative Bank who agreed to find funding sources to purchase agricultural machinery, a substantial part of Syuniks four-component RDP. During the visit RDP staff met and trained with master class experts from The Netherlands Malus Consultancy. Malus Consultancy agreed to provide ongoing consultancy to RDP staff. In 2013, RDP staff will invite Mr. Heldens to visit Syunik NGO where he will see the results of the hybrid nursery and will develop future development plans.

Field visit in The Nitherlands

Nara Martirosyan Office of International & Public Affairs Syunik Benevolent NGO
Benevolent NGO

Tel/Fax: +374 (0281) 24009 Email: oipa.syunikngo@yahoo.com www.syunikngo.am

Momiki St. 5, 3601 Yeghegnadzor, Vayots Dzor Province, Republic of Armenia