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Latest News
2 September 2010
The official opening ceremony of the computer training centre situated in the community centre of Shenik village of Armavir marz was held on the 1st of September.
Orange-Armenia Company has supported the implementation of this project with necessary computers and super-speed internet. The centre has been thoroughly renovated and furnished with the joint efforts of Shen and the community. The community medical aid post which is situated in the same building has also been renovated.
With the 1st of September being the Day of Knowledge in Armenia, the first-grade school-children received presents from Orange-Armenia, and the library situated in the same building received 300 pieces of fiction books which had been collected by Orange and Shen employees.
The following were present at the opening ceremony – the Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer of France Telecom/Orange group Mr Mark Fossier, the CEO of Orange-Armenia Mr Bruno Dutoit, a representative of Shen-France Mr Hrayr Hrachian, all the population of the community.
Right after the opening ceremony one of the community members, a highly qualified IT specialist Yervand Ayvazyan, started his work as a system administrator of the computer centre.
9 August 2010
A field seminar on "Organic agriculture and ecology" was held by Shen NGO one of these days in Dprabak community of Gegharkunik marz. The seminar was organised in the frame of project of "Introduction of sustainable land use and biodiversity conservation practices in Dprabak community of Gegharkunik region" funded by UNDP Armenia GEF SGP. The training was planned for 7-11 grade students of 6 communities of Chambarak region. The field-seminar was held in the organic community orchard of Dprabak aiming to present the pilot project of establishing a community unit to the youth of Dprabak and neighbouring communities.
During the seminar Shen NGO specialists presented reports on "Organic agriculture as a prospective direction", "Production of biohumus and preparation of compost mix", "Mechanisms of diagnosing domestic animals". During the second half of the seminar all participants took part in the preparation of a compost mix on the orchard using red Californian worms.
The example of Dprabak community orchard pilot project will not only contribute towards the sustainability and social development of communities, but also will indirectly link the rural youth to with communities.
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Rural Development of Meghri Region: Markets for Meghri
Updated on 05 March, 2010
Meghri is the southern subregion of Syunik region, Armenia, bordering Iran and Azerbaijan. The subregion consists of 2 towns of Meghri and Agarak and 11 surrounding villages situated on three major geographical zones: Araks riverside, Mid-zone and Mountainous zone. Meghri has the advantage of favourable sub-tropical conditions for agricultural production.
Traditionally, fruit and vegetables were grown in Meghri which were supplied to urban centres and local processing facilities. Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union and ensuing regional conflicts production, processing and commercialisation suffered a severe decline. Closed borders impeded input supply and access to markets. Those large production units once working so efficiently were now divided into small-holder family farms leading to a decline of applied technology. Government support services were only partially replaced by private actors. The difficult economic situation led to an increased emigration. As a result, the livelihoods of the population of this region is rather poor: lack of infrastructure, lack of access to the main market, no reliable sources of income and scarce employment opportunities make the situation even more complicated for the locals. Thus Shen and Swiss IC organisation are implementing a project of "Rural Development of Meghri Region: Markets for Meghri" funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) with an overall project goal defined below: "A dynamic horticulture agribusiness sector generates sustainable and broad-based employment and income for producers in Meghri".
The project outcome is that "production, processing and marketing of horticultural produce is improved and responds to the needs of the market".
Since access to markets and development of economically efficient value chains are decisive elements of the project, the M4P approach "Making Markets Work for the Poor", will be applied. Hence, the project is entitled "Markets for Meghri (M4M)". This is a relatively new technique for Armenia and it has been applied in Goris region by "Developing markets for dairy production through service development and public-private partnerships in rural Armenia" project. This is another SDC funded project implemented by an Armenian NGO "Sustainable Development Agency (SDA)". However M4M project will be more comprehensive and will include several segments of fruit and vegetable market.
The project is currently in the inception phase launched on December 1, 2009 with duration of 6 months. Over this period a comprehensive analysis of Meghri region is being carried out concentrating on the thorough understanding of horticultural value chains starting from producers and ending with consumers of fruit and vegetables produced in the region.
This analysis includes the following components:
1. Livelihoods assessment
2. Consumption Habits Survey
3. Disaster Risk Reduction assessment
4. Fruit and Vegetable Value Chains analysis.
The findings of this broad analysis will be discussed with all related stakeholders at Project Planning Workshop to take place later this month which will lay the foundations for the activities of the first 2.5-year implementation phase commencing in June 2010.
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