Foundation for the Preservation of
Wildlife and Cultural Assets of Armenia

#5 Byron St., 375 009,
Yerevan, ARMENIA
Tel: + 374 10 529 340
Tel/Fax: +374 10 564 484
Mob: +374 93 206 248
E-mail: eva@fpwc.org

SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival in Armenia

Starting on March 31st in the Gyumri region, the volunteers of SunChild
First Regional Environmental Festival have begun the cleaning up of glass
wool garbage. Glass wool, which was once used as a building material in
temporary housings for victims of the 1988 earthquake, is a very
health-threatening product. Exposed to wind, bits and pieces of the
poisonous material have gradually polluted many areas of the city.

Currently, the SunChild volunteers have succeeded in cleaning two out of
the four areas that are on the agenda. Very encouraging is the growing
interest of different media sources for the SunChild Festival and in
particular for this glass wool garbage cleanup action. With each report
that is conducted in regards to the glass wool problem in Gyumri a very
important question is raised, why is there a need for young volunteers to
take over a task that is actually the responsibility of the city
government to solve?

It is a fact that the glass wool garbage in Gyumri causes serious health
problems for the citizens of the area; however, the ruling party in town
hall is ignoring the situation.

The city government has the key for the solution to solving the problem in
its hands. It is as simple as adding a small paragraph in the contract
agreements between the city and the private companies that buy the
barracks. Currently the private companies take away all valuable building
materials after deconstruction – except the glass wool garbage, which
remains. The city could easily enforce the private companies, by contract,
to properly dispose of the glass wool garbage. `But until now the city
government refused to take any action’, as Anna Yeghoyan, a citizen of
Gyumri and Executive director of the Gyumri based NGO `Youth for peace &
development’ (YFPD) explains. More than six months the YFPD has struggled
with the town hall’s ignorance of this very problem.

In fact, YFPD is not an organization that concentrates on environmental
issues; they are mainly dedicated to democracy building and the support of
advocacy campaigns. From their perspective, the glass wool pollution in
some areas of Gyumri is clearly a political problem, which must be solved
by means of lobbying. In this case, Anna Yeghoyan believes that SunChild
First Regional Environmental festival offers the chance that YFPD has been
looking for.

The framework of an environmental festival, such as SunChild, can be used
as an excellent platform to put the Gyumri glass-wool garbage problem on
the public in order to raise the awareness of citizens and the media. So
when some months ago Anna Yeghoyan came into touch with the organizers of
SunChild First Regional Environmental Festival, she informed them about
the glass wool problem and suggested cooperation in Gyumri.

The environmental experts of the SunChild organization team examined the
city and selected the areas where removing of the glass wool garbage was
most urgent. Although there are many locations that need removal of the
poisonous agent, the experts focused on the areas that had the highest
chance of children coming in contact with the glass wool.

In December of 2006, YFPD and SunChild organizers informed the city
government about their project. The first contacts seemed to be promising:
The representatives of city government assured the organizers that they
were ready to support the glass wool cleaning activities with everything
needed. But after several months of negotiations, the organizers of
SunChild Festival and YFPD realized that the promises made by the Gyumri
town hall were more or less worthless. From all the equipment and support
promised in the beginning, only one dustcart remained. On the cleaning
days the SunChild team is allowed to call the car when the bags with the
glass wool garbage are ready to be removed.

Finally, the whole equipment that is necessary to do the cleaning, such
as; protective masks, gloves, shovels and bags for the garbage, as well as
buses which are used to transport the volunteers to their working places
is provided by the SunChild Environmental Festival.

So in spite of the fact that the work of the festival’s volunteers will
clearly improve the living quality in Gyumri, the city government still
seems to be reluctant to take any steps towards a solution.

But YFPD and the SunChild team certainly won’t give up. Now that they have
united their efforts, they are sure: Their joint pressure, as well as, the
growing support of media and conscious citizens will finally force the
government to give up its resistance and work towards a solution.
Hopefully, in the future, no more young volunteers will have to take over
the responsibility for the disposal of poisonous material in Gyumri and
this work will be done professionally by properly equipped companies.

Eva Martirosyan
Press Coordinator

SUN CHILD Regional Environmental Festival