SHRJADARDZ INTER-VILLAGE MONTHLY CELEBRATES ITS THIRD ANNIVERSARY
ARMENPRESS
Apr 14, 2009
ARMAVIR, APRIL 14, ARMENPRESS: The first ever inter-village newspaper
Shrjadardz, founded by the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) in 2006,
celebrates its third anniversary and intends to expand into a regional
media outlet for Armavir District of Armenia. In addition to a number
of innovative columns introduced in the monthly for the past year,
Shrjadardz opened new horizons for the members of local youth clubs
in Journalism and Public Relations, by including in its issues the
children’s articles on various cultural and community-related topics.
Three years of continuous efforts and contribution from COAF staff,
Shrjadardz journalists, cluster village mayors and other supporters
of the monthly brought a great deal of excitement and inspiration to
the population of COAF’s Model Cluster, and the periodical became
one of their beloved and most anticipated media outlets in the
region. Nowadays, through Shrjadardz the villagers from Argina,
Dalarik, Karakert, Lernagog, Miasnikian and Shenik are the first
to read about cluster-wide activities, lives of ordinary people,
various topics in healthcare, education and socio-economic areas,
useful pieces of advice for housewives and their kitchen corner,
helpful announcements. In the words of Ani Abrahamyan, Karakert
School Teacher and Journalism Youth Club Instructor, "Thanks to its
content-full information, today Shrjadardz (meaning "transformation"
when translated into English) has become a part of our daily community
life and fully covers the very transformation taking place in our
villages from day to day."
More recently, COAF and Shrjadardz editorial staff jointly organized
an event in the Karakert School to mark its third-year anniversary and
present prizes to the winners of various contests announced through the
monthly. Participating in the event were guests from village schools,
pre-schools and health clinics, and members of rural youth clubs in
PR & Journalism from cluster communities. These youth clubs, coupled
with a chain of other clubs in healthy lifestyle, agribusiness, civic
education, ecology and logics have been established and facilitated
in partnership with Heifer International since 2008.
In the event COAF was represented by Ovsanna Yeghoyan, Head of
COAF Programs and Naira Gharakhanyan, Health and Social Programs’
Manager. COAF representatives welcomed the guests and introduced
the history of Shrjadardz for the past three years. In her speech,
Alla Ayvazyan, Shrjadardz Editor expressed her heartfelt thanks to
all those who believed in the monthly and made it a reality. She also
congratulated the winners and encouraged young rural journalists to
be more involved in the development of their communities.
Apart from the event and on the occasion of past three-year activities,
Shrjadardz staff conducted a customer satisfaction survey in a number
of communities throughout the region and revealed that 95% of rural
residents considered the monthly a significantly positive activity,
and 89% of those involved in the survey highlighted the importance
of its informational aspect. There are, however, some drawbacks,
such as the monthly’s inaccessibility throughout other communities
of the district and more detailed approach to the content, which need
to be improved in the nearest future.
Alongside with a number of economic, education, infrastructure and
health programs, the publication of Shrjadardz makes an integrated
part of COAF’s social development component within the framework of
its Comprehensive Rural Development Program in Armenia. Ultimately,
the monthly aims at improving communication inside cluster communities,
strengthening the links among villagers and rural public institutions
and their staff, and preparing rural youth to become professional
and competitive journalists throughout the region and the country,
by opening for them new horizons for self-development and growth.