PRESS RELEASE
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) – Yerevan Office
53-55 Pavstos Buzand Street, 0010
Yerevan, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Inessa Grigoryan
Tel: (+374 10) 522076; 562068
Fax: (+374 10) 522076
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Children of Armenia Fund – New York Office
162 Fifth Avenue, Suite 900,
New York, NY 10010, USA
Contact: Samantha Wagar
Tel: 212 – 994 – 8234
Fax: 212 – 994 – 8299
E-mail: [email protected]
Web:
Shrjadardz Monthly Celebrates its Third Anniversary
and Opens New Horizons for Rural Youth
April 14, 2009; Armavir District, Armenia ¾ 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.
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