Manana, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006

Yesterday saw more work for the Tufenkian Foundation in Armenia, and a return visit to the Manana Youth Educational-Cultural NGO in Yerevan. It was kind of refreshing to have the opportunity to accompany kids from the Manana photography class as they walked to document the construction on Buzand Street before returning for their art class. This wasn’t my first visit to Manana, of course.

Two years ago, I wrote an article on Manana while working on contract for UNICEF. In addition to classes for photography and painting, they also work in the area of film making and journalism.

At the age of fourteen, Gor Baghdasarian won the first-ever One-Minute Video Junior Award organized by UNICEF’s Young People’s Media Network, the Sandberg Institute and the European Cultural Foundation. Gor is a young Armenian filmmaker working with the ‘Manana’ Youth Educational-Cultural NGO in Yerevan.

His film, ‘Children must live without War’, was selected by the Oscar-nominated film director, Karim Traidia, as the best one-minute film in the junior category. “Gor’s film had a very straightforward message, a great script and an interesting style of filming that captures the eye from beginning to end,” said Traidia during the awards ceremony held in Amsterdam on 10 November 2002.

[…]

However, things might have been different without encouragement from ‘Manana’, a youth educational-cultural center founded in 1995 in the Armenian capital. Although the organization began by encouraging children to write articles and poems about their lives and surroundings, it later expanded to incorporate photojournalism, film-making, web design, publishing and painting. Numbers vary from year to year but on average, approximately 50 children aged between six and 18 participate in the organization’s activities.

That article is online here, and Manana has a web site here. Armenia Now also has an article on Manana here.

Manana, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006