The Armenia Fund Rural Development Program
Governmental Building 3, Yerevan, RA
Contact: Hayk Petrosyan
Tel: + (3741) 56 01 06 ext. 107
Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
E-mail: rdp@himnadram.org
Web:

28 December, 2007

The Armenia Fund Rural Development Program End Year Report

Yerevan, December 28, 2007 – As the countdown to 2008 is nearing the end, it
is time to sum up some of the results of the year 2007. This has been a
truly milestone year for the Rural Development Program as the bold idea
conceived during the 2006 Armenia Diaspora Conference and supported by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gradually took shape and transformed into a
practical mechanism as an integral part of The Armenia Fund.

The concept of rural development by itself is not new. The vital strategic,
economic and social importance of developing the rural communities and
especially border communities is also common knowledge. In this sense, both
the Government and the various local and international structures are
actively involved in the field, implementing a range of projects aimed at
alleviating this or that issue. Sooner or later these projects will give
their fruits. Unfortunately, time is one luxury we cannot afford and the
welcome development may come too little too late. Years of deprivations,
war, blockade, isolation, lack of infrastructure and jobs have brought forth
hopelessness and as a result: emigration. Thus, in another ten to fifteen
years, when the good life comes to the border villages, there may be no one
there to enjoy it.

There is no magic wand solution to this issue. Turning the tidal wave is
only possible through achieving new levels of cooperation, coordination and
channeling of all the available resources in Armenia and the Diaspora at
ensuring comprehensive and sustainable development of the border villages in
Armenia and Karabakh. This is our task, our goal, our dream: a dream shared
by all Armenians around the world.

Bringing that dream down to the real world is a painstaking process. For the
last six months we have been engaged in this process carrying out extensive
background work on bringing together the various components of the Program.
In a sense, this preparatory stage is probably the hardest as most of the
activities are going on under the surface and there are no physically
visible results. We are also very much aware of the high expectations both
From the Diaspora and the members of border communities as The Armenia Fund
has a rich history of undertaking seemingly impossible tasks and
successfully completing them.

At the same time, this meticulous preparatory process is the key to the
Program’s long term success, as it has allowed us to establish the vital
cooperation links, to gather both the governmental and non governmental
bodies around one table and work out a concrete action plan, where the many
diverse projects by different organizations come together in the same area
to form one comprehensive solution.

Thus, as a result of extensive negotiations with the governmental
institutions, we have been able to solve two of the major infrastructural
issues in the Program’s pilot Khashtarak cluster encompassing six villages
in Tavush region. The Ministry of Finance and Economy will redirect some of
the available resources at rehabilitating the roads of the region, while the
Ministry of Agriculture has undertaken the task of providing the communities
with access to natural gas.

Lack of access to natural gas is a universal problem in almost all the
border villages. Universal problem requires a universal solution and we
engaged into active negotiations with ArmRusGasArd. The result of these
negotiations is the organization’s commitment to co-finance the gasification
projects in all the border villages included in the Program.

We are also working on ensuring maximum involvement of local and
international organizations. At this point we are working with the following
structures:

. Armenia TV
o Preparation of vocational training DVDs
. Armenia School Foundation
o Provision of furniture to border village schools
. Armenian Technology Group (ATG)
o Conducting seminars/trainings in the pilot Khashtarak cluster
communities
o Seed betterment initiatives
. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD)
o Establishment of a milk collection unit, which will serve the needs
of the communities in and beyond the cluster
. International Center for Human Development (ICHD)
o Conducting community meetings in the cluster communities, ensuring
that the community members have their say in shaping the future
projects.
. Heifer International Armenia Branch
o Animal husbandry development initiative
o Young farmers training project
. Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
o Establishment of up-to-date veterinary points in the six villages of
the cluster
o Economic facilitation analysis in the prospective clusters
. UNDP and the Government of Italy
o Infrastructural amendment and agricultural development initiatives
in the Khashtarak cluster village of Lusadzor.

This list is by no means complete and will grow as the Program enlarges its
scale to reach out to all the border villages. Overall, the Rural
Development Program has been blessed by the strong support of both official
structures and ordinary people who simply care and want to make a
difference. To maximally widen the opportunities of getting involved in the
Program, we conceived the small projects initiative. These financially
low-cost projects cannot solve major issues but can nevertheless have strong
impact on the communities concerned, bringing hope and empowering people. We
truly felt the practical importance of these kinds of initiatives for the
border community members when we visited six villages in the Program’s Lori
cluster to distribute school consumables to 208 students, as part of the
small projects initiative. The project implementation date coincided with
the approaching holidays and the children received the consumable packages
as New Year gifts. We tried telling them otherwise, but in the end it all
very much made sense.

This is a very interesting notion, as it shows just how much these children
need that attention from the outside world, not only on New Year, or
holiday, or any other special occasion, but everyday and always. Driving
through the half empty villages through rocks, ice and mud and seeing the
scale of work that needs to be done, you really understand the importance of
this kind of additional incentive not only for the children but also men and
women who live in these conditions day after day, everyday and have the
strength and the resolve to carry on. They truly deserve a better life and
these kinds of projects give them the hope that help is on the way, that
there is someone who cares and wants to help.

In this sense, 2008 promises to be a very interesting, intense and rewarding
year as we will see many of the specific initiatives become a reality and
improve life in the border villages whether it’s on infrastructural,
economic or social level. The measure of success here is that this time next
year more families living in the border villages will decide not to travel
abroad and stay in their villages as they will feel and see that change is
coming and life is actually getting better. Of all the things, this would be
our New Year wish and we hope that you will join us on this one. Happy New
Year and Merry Christmas!!!

The Armenia Fund Rural Development Program