Armenia
What we do
We work in the earthquake-prone region around Spitak,
where poverty and unemployment have persisted for decades.
The region also had to cope with a
large influx of internally displaced persons
from the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in 2020.
Income Generation is Vital
The big need is still for local men and women to find good jobs. Unemployment remains high in the area and the majority of of local men have to go to Russia to find work, which is often poorly paid, demoralising and bad for family life.
Our projects are therefore mainly focused on giving women the skills needed to find work so they can better provide for themselves and their families.
Our sewing workshop in the Jrashen community centre started in September 2020 with the machines funded by UK donors. The initial 6-months of training has now finished, most of the women have found local employment and some have been inspired to start their own sewing business and that is going well.
We also started a bakery project too, providing some breadmaking machines, for several families fleeing the war zone, and some have found local employment as bakers.
Food Production
Growing vegetables remains an important source of income for many.
Healthy Living
Like many countries, Armenia has been hard hit by Covid-19. Because its economy is precarious, there has not been much lockdown and most have continued to work.
We support wider community health programmes and run our own parenting courses for women and summer camps for children. We also provided some trauma counselling for key workers In the aftermath of the 2020 war with Azerbaijan.
Holiday camp for children
Tamara & Sam Khachatryan
GHNI staff team, Armenia
What We do