PRESS RELEASE
The Civilitas Foundation
One Northern Ave. Suite 30
Yerevan, Armenia
Telephone: +37410.500119
IT IS HARVEST SEASON IN ARMENIA
by Hayk Petrosyan, Civilitas Foundation Programs Coordinator
It is harvest season in Armenia. The Civilitas Foundation rural development
team makes regular visits to villages to monitor Civilitas rural development
programs. Each trip produces stories about the dilemmas facing individual
farmers and Armenia’s rural economy in general.
We used the first really cold weekend in Yerevan to gear up with warm
clothes and some chips and fruit, and took off towards Goris with a plan to
visit two communities – Harzhis and Bardzravan. Both communities are
included in the Civilitas Dairy Production Enhancement project that began
with support from the Ekserciyan family of Argentina.
These communities will be beneficiaries of milk refrigeration units by the
end of February 2010, thanks to Polish Aid and in collaboration with the
Armenia-based Strategic Development Agency. This means our donor, Polish
Aid, a Polish government aid agency, will pay for a milk refrigeration unit
for each village, so that farmers can store their milk there for several
days until the purchasing company makes its regular weekly or semi-weekly
trip to collect the fresh milk. Without such a refrigeration unit, it
doesn’t matter how many cows a dairy farmer has, he (or sometimes, she)
won’t be able to support a family, because two days worth of milk will go
bad waiting for the purchasing agent to show up. With such a refrigeration
unit, not only will they see their income increase, they’ll be able to make
(interest-free) payments on the refrigeration unit, so that the same funds
can eventually be used to help another village.
This is an interesting project but it raises a lot of questions that are
difficult to answer: Like, what do you do with a community that can stand on
its feet with your assistance but would have a hard time surviving without
the `incubating’ circumstances initiated by us? A bank would never approve a
loan for these types of communities where the payback period is so long that
the amount loaned is seriously devalued, where there is no interest paid,
where there is no collateral even in the equation.
After all, the village of Bardzravan, with several old churches and
settlements, only has a population of 127 in 36 households.
We were told that Bardzravan has a breathtaking view of the Vorotan gorge
and a beautiful church right on the edge of the cliff, so the first thing we
did was visit the place before it was too dark. The view was really
magnificent with the Tatev monastery on the other side of the gorge and
several villages looking at you from the other side.
We met Zaven Babig at the church, bringing calves home from pasture.
Zaven Babig lives in Bardzravan with his wife. He had five children. He says
he’s happy in the village but the younger generation does not want to stay
in the community, they all want to have jobs in the cities.
The number of kids in the school decreased from 54 to 8. We turned down his
invitation to dinner and left, thinking that 8 kids in a school is a really
scary reality. Can you imagine your whole school is only 8 students? All
grades together do not make one normal sized class.
On our way out we met the principal of the school and the mayor. On my
comment that 8 kids must be a hell of a reality to live with, he corrected
me, with pride, that it’s not eight, it’s eleven, as if that makes a lot of
difference. The mayor started to tell us about the recent activities in the
community — how they got together and fixed the water lines or cleaned up
the community. He was really hopeful that the milk refrigeration center
would help enhance dairy production from raw milk to cheese production.
He was full of initiative and ready to work to develop his community that
has 11 kids in the school and a potential for development of milk
production.
With mixed feelings, the Civilitas team set off towards Goris, understanding
that the dilemma of assistance to communities on the edge is still a
question without a solid answer. We know what the Civilitas Foundation
answer is: to look for a donor to help make it possible for them to survive,
and even thrive. No hand-outs, but a hand-up, as a wise man once said.