Drakhtik, Gegharkunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Via The Armenian Observer, I discovered today that the Tufenkian Foundation’s new web site is online albeit still under construction and recently hacked by Azeris. However, what is more interesting for me is that I spent a few days last year photographing some of their projects for the site and have wondered about its progress.
Our Duty To Live, Vanadzor, Lori Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Today saw a visit to the Tufenkian Foundation’s Our Duty To Live project in Vanadzor. I previously posted some photos from the Our Duty To Live Center in Yerevan here and here. Anyway, with a sizeable number of families living below the national poverty level, projects like this are crucial to address the social, psychological, nutritional and educational needs of children from vulnerable families in Armenia.
In Vanadzor, the situation is made worse by the devastating effect of the 1988 Armenian Earthquake which still lingers. There are still over 300 families living in domiks – temporary metal containers — even today. I did something on this with a local journalist based in Vanadzor in 2004.
Eighteen-month-old Mariam, the youngest of Lena Shestakova’s nine children, was born with heart trouble. She lives with her family in a domik, or metal trailer. Doctors say she needs surgery, but only after her exhausted body has had time to regain strength. Her parents don’t have enough money to take Mariam for a medical examination. Her father, Styopa Khachatryan, says that the last time they went to the hospital, doctors asked for 20,000 drams (about $39) to treat the girl. Families like this, however, are entitled to free health care. “The poverty index of their family is higher than 38, which means that all the members of the family are entitled to medical services, including surgery, free of charge,” explains the deputy head of the department of health and social security of the Lori Marzpet’s (governor’s) Office, Valery Jaghinyan.
But Mariam’s family has had trouble claiming this entitlement. The only thing they can afford is the medicine for the injections that their neighbor, a nurse, gives the child six times a day, twice by candlelight. The family lives in the dark - their electricity meter was taken away more than a year ago, because they owed 8,000 drams debt. Their ailing daughter was recently bitten by a rat. Luckily, she wasn’t seriously injured.
Drakhtik, Gegharkunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Today saw another trip out into the regions for Armenia for the Tufenkian Foundation. Anyway, the trip today was to take a look some more of their projects, but this time in the village of Drakhtik close to Lake Sevan in the Gegharkunik region of the Republic. Armenia Now wrote something on the Tufenkian Foundation’s work in Drakhtik some time back.
In 1999, the Tufenkian Foundation (established by businessman James Tufenkian of New York) began a cooperative with sheep farmers in this region that starts out as an investment by the humanitarian organization but ends as a business deal between the villagers and the entrepreneur - best known for handmade carpets woven from the very sheep making all the noise on this Armenian hillside. (Tufenkian also owns a carpet factory in Tibet, where his first rugs were produced 16 years ago.)
The program works like this:
Ten families in villages like Drakhtik and nearby Jil are given a “grant” of 258 sheep (collectively) - 250 of which are female. Families are selected on the basis of their experience at raising sheep, and on their current economic status (i.e., whether anyone in the family is working).
Further, the village is given $4,500 — $3,000 for wheat to sustain the herd during the winter, and $1,500 for start up expenses, such as building barns and paying for vaccinations.
For two years, the sheep farmers owe the Foundation nothing. Then, at the end of the third year, they start paying back their “grant” - 50 sheep the third year, then 100 the fourth and fifth years. The Foundation will then use the sheep paid off from one village to begin the same program in another.
As the normal birthrate for sheep is one offspring per year, even given natural losses, farmers will greatly increase herd sizes and the number of sheep they get to divide among themselves.
Further, from the moment the sheep arrive in the village, families begin processing the byproducts - milk, cheese, butter, yogurt - for personal use and to sell to nearby towns. And, in addition to the dairy products, Tufenkian’s carpet factory buys the wool - which is why in these villages a very special breed “koridel”, peculiar to the Caucasus, is raised, as experts at Tufenkian Armenian Carpets have learned its unique wool is best suited for their hand-woven rugs.
Drakhtik, Gegharkunik Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Yerord Mas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Another outing today for the Tufenkian Foundation in Armenia, but this time to the Duty to Live NGO in Yerevan’s Yerord Mas district. The NGO basically works with children from vulnerable families in that part of the capital in much the same way that other similar organizations such as Orran, the Fund for Armenian Relief, MSF-France, World Vision, the Shirak NGO in Gyumri and many others do.
Aparan, Aragatsotn Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Yesterday saw a third trip out into the field with Armenian Forests as part of continuing work for the Tufenkian Foundation in Armenia. After visiting Kotayk and the Botanical Gardens for the environmental organization, this time it was to coppicing being used to restore trees that had been cut down by others for fuel or business.
Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management, by which young tree stems are cut down to a low level, or sometimes right down to the ground.
In subsequent growth years, many new shoots will emerge, and after a number of years the cycle begins again and the coppiced tree or stool is ready to be harvested again. Typically a coppice woodland is harvested in sections, on a rotation. In this way each year a crop is available. This has the side-effect of providing a rich variety of habitats, as the woodland always has a range of different aged stools growing in it. This is beneficial for biodiversity.
Zinvori Mayr, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Once again, more work for the Tufenkian Foundation in Armenia, but this time the Zinvori Mayr NGO and the handing out of certificates and gifts to the now teenage children of soldiers killed during the Karabakh conflict. The NGO has a web site http://www.zinvori-mair-ngo.am.
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.
Kotayk, Kotayk Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
As part of work for the Tufenkian Foundation in Armenia, today took me to Kotayk Region of Armenia where the Armenian Forests NGO have a project to replant trees in a village of the same name. As concerns are raised regarding deforestation and desertification in Armenia, Panaroma.am reports that some parts of the country are again experiencing drought.
Drought started across the regions of Armenia, Zarui Petrosyan, department head at the Armenian hydremeteorological service told Panorama.am. In her words, at the moment the level of temperature of air is above 4-6 degree. There will be no precipitations in the country until the end of the month with June 22 and 23 the hottest.
The drought was a complete surprise for the ministry of agriculture. In the words of the department head on relations with the ministry Vahag Martirosyan drought was not anticipated at the beginning of the year. Such a disaster covering the republic was reported only 5 years ago. The ministry of agriculture refutes to forecast the damage.
Botanical Gardens, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Tufenkian Foundation 2006
Today, as part of work commissioned by the Tufenkian Foundation, I visited a nursery operating under the umbrella of the Armenian Forests NGO situated in the Botanical Gardens in Yerevan. According to the NGO’s web site, Armenian Forests was established by Armenian-American philanthropist and entrepreneur, James Tufenkian.
As a means of reclaiming, protecting, and expanding forested areas, Armenian Forests NGO involves individuals, communities, other NGOs, government, and businesses in a variety of solutions on multiple fronts including changes in policies, norms of thinking and action, economic improvement, public education, and media advocacy.
This blog contains original material by Armenia-based British journalist and photographer, Onnik Krikorian, and links to other news and blogs. He can be contacted at onewmphoto@gmail.com.
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