WEEKLY REPORT
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:

January 11, 2008

WEEKLY UPDATE OF THE ARMENIA FUND RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

After a short holiday break, it’s business as usual for The Armenia Fund
Rural Development Program. This first report in the New Year concentrates on
the Program’s prospective cluster near Akhurian reservoir in Shirak region
of Armenia. It also focuses on the developments in the library improvement
project in the pilot Khashtarak cluster.

AKHURIAN PROSPECTIVE CLUSTER

On January 10, 2008, The Armenia Fund Executive Director Vahe Aghabegians
and the Rural Development Program staff made a working visit to the
communities near Akhurian reservoir in Shirak region (Jrapi, Isahakyan,
Lusaaghbyur, Yerazgavors). The aim of the visit was to get the overall feel
of the situation on the ground, see the cluster formation possibilities as
well as hear the community members’ views on the most pressing issues in
their villages.

With the temperature in all of Armenia dropping to (the very unusual) -20 to
-25C and the roads frozen over, the 160+km road to Akhurian proved to be
quite a testing experience. The roads were almost empty, as the motorized
public transportation was almost completely absent in the region given the
weather conditions. The one public transport, which in this weather is the
communities’ almost exclusive link to the outside world, is a Soviet era
train, which comes complete with the old Empire’s signature emblem, rusty
carriages, delays and slow speed, making people wait for hours in the
unheated stations.

On the way to Jrapi community, which is one of the villages on the bank of
Akhurian reservoir and our first destination, we passed by an abandoned
village. Nested in the middle of two small mountains it no longer had a name
and its empty, broken down houses were a potent reminder of the urgency of
the task at hand.

Jrapi is a village of around 1100 people. At this time of the year, the
setting of the community changes drastically, as Akhurian reservoir is empty
in wintertime. But even when it’s full, it does not provide the communities
of the region with easily reached irrigation water or dependable income.
This is a border area between Armenia and Turkey, with the divisive line
passing through the middle of the reservoir and the banks on both sides
under strong control. Even to be able to fish in the waters of the
reservoir, the community members need to get a special license, which places
strict limitations on the number of fish that can be caught, making this
kind of occupation little more than a hobby. Any endeavor of scale related
with Akhurian reservoir needs to go through the scrutiny of a two state
committee.

With the reservoir’s resources almost out of the financial equation, the
community members of Jrapi and other communities of the region concentrate
on land based agriculture instead. The basic problem here is the total lack
or the unsatisfactory state of the irrigation water networks. Much of the
water for the communities comes from underground springs via wells going
down as low as 125 meters. The pumps in place are out of date and expensive
to exploit and maintain, thus the farmers rely on natural irrigation. This
strongly reduces the amount of harvested crops and limits the range of
cultivable produce. The lack of available water also makes it hard to expand
the cattle breeding practice, as the water is scarce for the animals to
drink, as simple as that.

In the community of Isahakyan, the water issue extends to drinking water as
well. The single well that serves the whole village is too small and the
community receives drinking water once in three days for only one hour. Our
visit coincided with one of those days. At -20C degrees, there were clothes
hanging outside. With the wind constantly blowing from one direction, the
wet clothes had frozen stiff bended at a bizarre angle, making a strong
statement on the issue and underlining the fact that none of the communities
have access to natural gas to heat their homes and at least dry their
clothes inside. For the past fifteen years, these are the conditions people
bear day after day, everyday.

In the community of Lusaghbyur, people tried to solve the water issue by
digging individual wells. These wells are only used to irrigate a very small
plot of land near the house and provide the family with drinking water.
These kinds of conditions hinder the normal development of the farming
households, limiting them to sustenance farming.

At the same time, the communities have the potential and capacity to develop
feasible cattle breeding practice and improve agriculture. The key here is
solving the universal access to markets issue. In this sense, the railroad
that passes through all the communities can become a strong uniting factor
and a lifeline for the communities. It can be used to re-establish the now
severed trading links both within the communities and with the rest of the
country. The area would also be suitable for establishing a milk collection
unit, as most communities have 500-800 cows, which is an above average
statistic for Armenia’s border villages.

With the abundant snow not concealing but instead emphasizing the problems
of the communities, it also underlined the determination of the community
members’ to carry on. All they ask for are the very basic conditions and an
environment where they can help themselves, an environment we will do
everything and anything possible to create together.

LIBRARY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE

After a period of research and preparations, the Azatamut community library
improvement initiative is close to becoming a reality. With the process of
acquiring the needed books now in progress, it is now time to focus on the
renovation of the library space itself. Our approach here is guaranteeing
maximum participation and involvement of students and other community
members in the renovation process.

This way, each and every member of the community involved will develop the
sense of ownership and belonging. Even the youngest members of the community
will have the opportunity to contribute as they will have a huge wall and a
door to paint and let their imagination fly. All this is necessary to
breathe a new life into a place, which in the last fifteen years has become
little more than an annoying chore and a painfully dull extension to the
school curriculum. This needs to change. They say that the change starts at
heart; it sure is true for this project as despite the cold weather, the
community is very eager to start the renovation process as soon as possible.

The Rural Development Program staff will visit the community early next week
to discuss the details of the renovation process.