HAYASTAN ALL ARMENIAN FUND INITIATES GASIFICATION PROJECTS IN TWO BORDER VILLAGES IN TAVUSH

armradio.am
24.10.2008 17:45

All Armenian Fund has launched gasification projects in Tavush region’s
communities of Khashtarak and Lusahovit in the framework of the Fund’s
Rural Development Program. These projects will ensure that more than
two thousand members of these villages no longer need to confront
the dilemma of heating their homes during the long, cold winter months.

One of the key challenges facing Hayastan All Armenian Fund when
working in Armenia’s border villages is the obsolete condition
of the very basic infrastructure; infrastructure without which the
effectiveness of any economic stimulus is minimal. This infrastructure
includes schools, health care points, drinking and irrigation water
accessibility, community administration and support facilities, roads
and last but definitely not least the access to natural gas. This item
of infrastructure is sometimes overlooked as something villages can
very much do without. However, in today’s reality, the very future
of the village often depends on whether it has access to natural gas
or not.

Unavailability of natural gas is one of the main reasons mentioned by
people who have moved from their villages. It is the basic comfort of
being sure that your child wakes up in a heated home that people are
looking for and in this sense, every other difficulty takes a back seat
when you cannot ensure that. This is why, for many years now, people
have relied solely on the nearby woods for a source of heat. This has,
naturally, taken a heavy and painful toll on the environment.

"When looking at the needs of the villages that the Fund is working
in, our priorities lie with initiatives that the people living in
these communities consider most urgent," says Ara Vardanyan, the
Acting Executive Director of Hayastan All Armenian Fund. "After all,
this is what the Fund has always been about, extending a helping hand
to people and offering relief at the time when it is needed most."