The power of one

by Sanan Shirinian
(USA)


Often, the history of my ancient people is reduced down to tragic, dispassionate statistics: 1.5 million murdered during the genocide, 25,000 killed in the earthquake, over a million emigrants in the past twenty years.  However, each of these numbers has a face, a family, and a story which make them human.  Although I was brought up thousands of miles away from Armenia, the plight of my people is never far from my mind.  Their stories shape what I value in life and propel me to work for a better future.  Throughout the years, my several trips to Armenia as a volunteer, had given me insight on the country’s unique reality.  After a mere 20 years of independence, the fledgling state was quickly changing. It seemed to be a growing organism in desperate need of public participation.  My passion for social justice and my eagerness to take part in Armenia’s growth process somehow led me to my current internship at the Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation (HMF).

The Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation is a social democratic policy institute in Armenia committed to the development and advancement of public policy issues that espouse the basic values of social democracy through education, training, research, and regional and international cooperation. Its focus and aim is to encourage public debate and promote equality, freedom and democracy in Armenia and the region. The Foundation produces academic research papers, linking them to political decision-making and policy, organizes conferences and round tables, publishes studies on social democracy and conducts trainings for young political leaders.

Just as action is inefficacious without education, I believe education is squandered without action. This is precisely why I am so fulfilled with my work at the foundation. It is a professional environment where we critically examine multiple issues, upon which we make a plan of action to tackle them. Going into work each day, I receive practical experience and get a direct perspective on the social and national development of Armenia.

One of the first initiatives I successfully completed at the foundation was producing a groundbreaking documentary series about the challenges and achievements of women in Armenia. In cooperation with Yerkir Media, we prepared six television segments telling stories of women’s experiences with business, politics, healthcare, domestic violence, migration and the Artsakh Liberation Movement. The project opened my eyes to so many different realities women face in our country, and as a recent graduate of the Women’s Studies department at UCLA, I was all the more appreciative of this opportunity. Aside from this extensive project, my day to day tasks range from preparing preliminary research for policy change, applying to innovative grant opportunities, arranging conferences for political leaders, and much more.

Working at the Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am challenged by the work put in front of me everyday and accomplishing even the most seemingly miniscule tasks feels like a great victory. Although many lamentable numbers can be attributed to Armenia's history, I believe the most important number is 1; the number of people needed to start making positive change for her future.  While I recognize that simple solutions to complex and multifaceted problems in our country do not exist, I am ready to invest the necessary time and effort to see Armenia move forward. Working at the Hrayr Maroukhian Foundation means taking a small yet important part in that process.

Preamble to My Armenian Reality

by Anahid Yahjian(USA)

I didn't come to Armenia to try and make a difference in people's lives. I am 22, fresh out of college, confused, drowning in my own convoluted sense of self. I have no business entering any space--let alone one as mutable as the South Caucasian one--and announcing to the people therein,  "Let me help you help you."

I'm not here to try and find myself, either. To benefit from the dram-to-dollar exchange rate as I wander the pubs of Yerevan, explaining in between cigarettes that I'm just on a quest to figure out who I am, man.

I am here to learn. To struggle with language. To hand over my compass. To stand corrected when I assume too much. To fail, and to fall hard.

It isn't easy. There are days when I am nothing short of a burden to the people who have welcomed me into their homes and workplaces. I flounder through basic tasks, upset the order of things. But I am forgiven endlessly. There is deep wisdom that precedes any mistake I could possibly make; a level of compassion that is infinitely both nurturing and patient. For this, I am forever grateful.

And so I remain, a vestige of certainty and power, submissive to the mutability of this place, where people dance in the aisles, wax lyrical about dark pain and always, always remind me, jana, that this is where I need to be.

Reflections: Four months and counting….

by Nieri Avanessian 
(USA)

For nearly four months, I’ve been working at two different civil society organizations - PINK Armenia and Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (IDHR). While the two NGOs have quite different issue areas and approaches, the thing they have in common, which has made my experience in Armenia so far full of surprisingly wonderful moments, is that the local Armenians who run and work for these two organizations are hopeful. It’s incredibly easy in this country to find people who just don’t believe that anything will ever change for the better. In the diaspora we mostly hear that Armenia’s government is corrupt and the money is all going into the pockets of people who are already rich and not to the people who need it. We don’t hear very often about the organizations run by  ‘real’ people, or about  ground-up civic initiatives whose participants are ordinary Armenian citizens who know that they are in fact capable of making a difference, however small, in the reality of their state.

At both PINK and at IDHR, I’ve met amazing people who believe in Armenia. Working with them, I’ve helped and taken part in environmentalist movements, passed out informative leaflets on AIDS, published articles on international movements to stop gender violence and on breakthrough research on an HIV vaccine, participated in a youth seminar camp on gender, activism, tolerance and equality, and most of all I’ve learned a little bit about what Armenia is really like.

I came here with no expectations, and tried not to have any prior beliefs about what it would be like. I think I did a pretty good job. I absorbed the culture with as much of an open mind as I could; I ignored the staring men and women to whom it was obvious that I am diasporan and focused on the ones who wanted to teach me and who wanted to learn from me. I’ve met women who don’t wear high heels or makeup every day. Men who wear pink shirts. Men with long hair and women with short hair. People who are proud to serve in the army to protect their homeland. I’ll be fair, I’ve met many people who DO fit every bad stereotype you’ve ever heard of, but they aren’t the ones whose actions will be driving positive change for the future of Armenia. I want Armenians in the diaspora to stop holding onto stereotypes about Armenia which they believe are absolute. Extremism is almost always wrong. While I’m here, after I leave, perhaps forever, that’s what I’ll teach, preach and believe.

It took less than a month for me to want to stay longer than the 9 months I initially planned. I’ve been here for 4 months, and I’m still not sure what it now means to me to be Armenian or what the country actually represents. Maybe it won’t ever be clear, but for better or worse it’s gotten under my skin, it’s gotten personal.

Мой опыт волонтера в Армении.

Арсен Петросян (2011) Arsen Petrosyan
Россия - Russia

Этой осенью я начал участвовать в волонтерской стажировке в Армении. Для этого было несколько причин: во-первых, я хотел пожить в Армении и узнать ее поближе, но не в качестве туриста как я приезжал до этого, а принимая активное участие в жизни страны - это работая бок о бок с жителями страны. Во-вторых, у меня выдалось летом свободное время, и я решил, что стажировка - это уникальная возможность получить новый опыт и попробовать себя в новой сфере. 

Считаю, что мне повезло с местом стажировки, где довелось поучаствовать в организации конференции по интернет технологиям и конкурсе стартапов. Эта работа занимала у меня много времени, но дала мне возможность близко познакомиться с этой отраслью в Армении. Так же параллельно мне удалось заняться переводами документации с английского на русский и поучаствовать в организации интересных мероприятий от художественных выставок до социальной работы. 

До стажировки у меня было ощущение, что волонтер - это человек, работающий бесплатно, и занимающийся, в основном, социальной работой. Во время стажировки, в области близкой к моей профессиональной, мне пришлось решать интересные задачи, познакомиться с интересными профессионалами со всего мира. Я пришел к убеждению, что работая волонтером, ты намного больше получаешь, чем отдаешь. Приезжайте в Армению и наслаждайтесь!

Processo de criação!

by Mariana Kehyayan
Brazil

Antes de chegar na Armênia não tinha, praticamente, nenhuma noção do que iria encontrar por lá. Lembro da minha primeira reunião com o Tim, na qual foram-se expostas as atividades que teria que realizar, mas não me falaram o quão gratificante esta experiência seria em minha vida. Sou estilista de formação, mas nunca havia trabalhado neste ramo da moda.

Homeland Handicrafts promove a ajuda o artesanato nacional armênio, para a diáspora e dentro do país. Há vários tipo de objetos, souveniers, com diferentes matérias primas …
Com Homeland Handicrafts fui para Berd, uma cidade no topo da montanha, com um cenário incrível (localiza-se ao norte do país), para acompanhar de perto e conhecer as artesãs que confeccionam o Bear Berd (o urso).

Processo de criação:
Primeiro aprendi quais regiões produziam determinados produtos (por matéria prima) e separamos as amostras no escritório por sessões. A visualização é sempre importante para criação.
O crochê sempre foi um artigo de muita aceitação dentro do Homeland Handicrafts, por isso, o fluxo de criação desta matéria prima era sempre alto, e, somado a isso, eu deveria criar coleções para as regiões que precisassem (varia de acordo com a intensidade de pedido/produção). Para isso, pesquisei sobre os símbolos armênios, cores, formas, algo típico que remetesse à cultura local. Mas, sempre com um toque de modernidade. Tentei criar artigos direcionados para todos: homens, mulheres, meninos e meninas

Uma das linhas que eu criei foi ‘’Os Animais’. A idéia surgiu a partir do ‘’Esh’’ (burro), um animal ‘’símbolo’’ pois eles estão sempre presentes nas estradas do país. Depois, vieram: a ovelha (e os longínquos rebanhos que atravessam as estradas a toda hora), o pastor de ovelhas, as vacas … e, eles se apresentam em diferentes versões: imãs de geladeiras, chaveiros, objetos de decoração, uma vez que são objetos práticos e lindos como souvenir.

Além disso, outra coleção em que trabalhei foi a idéia do urso de crochê (de Berd). Quando cheguei, o conceito já existia, mas inovei e incrementei a linha com o porta moedas de tecido com a cabeça do urso, marcador de página (versão masculina e feminina), bolsinhas de tecido, necessaire. Mesclei os tecidos com estampas atuais com um toque ‘’rústico’’ do crochê do urso.
Somado a isso, criei o dado do ‘ ‘Ayp Pen Kin’’, ou seja, o alfabeto armênio em forma de chaveiro e imã de geladeira. Uma vez que o nosso alfabeto é muito importante para nós e as cores nacionais, também.

Mas, o que me deixa super orgulhosa é saber que o que desenvolvi para Homeland Handicrafts está tendo cada vez mais êxito e vem surgindo novos produtos dentro das linhas que criei!
Obrigada pela oportunidade e um sucesso infinito para Homeland Handicrafts.

Para quem quer acessar o site desta ONG, é só clicar do link a seguir: http://homelandhandicrafts.org/