The project summary and our progress:

Ani presented our platform.

Summarizing the "Power of democracy" training-course within "ICT as a Tool for Young Voices" project, "Zartonk-89" NGO wanted again to enthusiastically and responsibly plan the future process and continuation of the project.  Aiming at the engagement of other regional groups and representatives, as well as valuing the significance and relevance of group work, "Zartonk-89" NGO invited a meeting-discussion.  In order to enlarge the frame of "Democratic youth" social platform formed in the result of our activities, Vigen Mkrtchyan - the Project leader, and Ani Melkonyan - the person responsible for the regional project, conducted meetings in such regions of RA, where the project is designed to be realized in the future too.  Again 16-20 years old young people were present at the meeting, who expressed their great interest in the establishment of democratic institutions in Armenia.  Sharing with our experience and acquired results, we presented our steps and future goals for the project continuation and the enlargement of the newly shaped platform to the other beneficiaries.  Ani Melkonyan - the person responsible for the regional project presented the future activities, the importance of selection of the target groups of the project and the mission and goals of the project.  At the meeting our beneficiaries asked their questions and, as future democratic leaders, expressed their great desire and enthusiasm to engage in regional projects.

Ani, who is responsible for the regional projects, will share with her experience and skills in the enlargement and promotion of "Democratic youth" platform.

Teamwork.

Hello,

Teamwork.

I am Ani.  I summarized the "Power of democracy" training-course within "ICT as a Tool for Young Voices" program and presented the "Democratic youth" platform to our young beneficiaries.  It was of my own responsibility to hear people, who were competent and motivated, had their own views on the solution of democracy issue in Armenia.  This meeting was going in a ease and friendly atmosphere, where each opinion and suggestion was heard and definitely was to contribute to the enlargement and reinforcement of our frame in the future.  In the end of the meeting the question forms were distributed amongst the participants, where they had to answer and express their opinion on the issues, which were related to the foundation and development of democracy.  Of course, it was interesting for us to hear the positions of the future democratic young people.  I, as the person responsible for the region projects, aim at the continuation of the project leader Vigen Mkrtchyan because the reaction of the youth was strong, which is the source of our motivation.

«BUILDING AUTONOMY IN RURAL AREAS» Progress Report:

The main objective of the «Building autonomy in rural areas» project was to help and promote the autonomy of young people in 2 regions of the Republic of Armenia and in 2 villages of Nagorno Karabagh (Nagorno Karabagh is also known as Artsakh). The project implemented Zartonk 89 NGO. «Building autonomy in rural areas» project was approved on 01.11.2015, money was transfered by Otto Per Mille Chiesa Valdese on 28.12.15, but Zartonk-89 NGO received it on 01.02.16 so we started immediately the implementation of the project. 

 The duration of the project was 3 months. During the 1st month we carried out the preparatory work, certificate preparation, contacting NGOs in Armenia (Vanadzor, Martuni) and Nagorno Karabagh (Shushi and Tigranakert), spreading open calls in order to inform and select participants considering participant's age, motivation and activity. In Lori region we contacted Zartonk-89 NGO's representative in Vanadzor and «NGO center» Civil Society Development NGO (non-governmental organization) who provided us free working place to realize our 4 day training course. They also helped us to distribute open call of our training course and to select participants. In Gegharkunik region we contacted Zartonk-89 NGO's representative in Martuni and Martuni Infotun, Martuni Women's Community Council (MWCC) NGO who also provided us free working place to implement our 4 day training course. In Nagorno Karabagh (also known as Artsakh) we contacted Artsakh Youth Development Center (AYDC) NGO who provided us free working place and helped to distribute open call in order to select participants for our training course. In each place we had 20 participants, so in 4 place in total we had 80 participants. We implemented 4 day training course in each place.

The 1st day we met with participants, presented our project, modules of our training course, created a positive atmosphere for teamwork and collaboration. We took a time to present that our project was supported with funds from Otto per Mille of the Waldensian Church of Italy. The main objective of our first meeting was creating a climate of confidence and mutual respect between young participants. 2nd day activities were about building autonomy, active citizenship, civic engagement, developing sensitivity and positive critical ability towards themselves and society. 3rd day our main topics were «crisis», «stress» and «conflict», our participants discovered about of origins of those words, had intense discussions and team working, learnt and developed strategies to understand, manage and overcome crisis and stress, how to transform and constructively resolve personal and interpersonal conflicts. 4th day we devoted to learning of different educational, social, learning tools and ways to observe, rise up and find solutions to community related issues (social media, e-learning, discussion groups, etc). In each place in the end of the training course participants received certificates and we had a time for feedback and evaluation of the training course through a distributed questionnaires to fill in, it was anonymous so our participants could freely express their opinions about our 4 day training and about our trainers. Whole training course was based on non-formal methodology. During all the project we were distributing information and photo reports on website of Zartonk-89 NGO, on social media like Facebook page, Facebook group. 

https://web.facebook.com/Zartonk89NGO/posts/596956027138301

https://web.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.599343630232874.1073741852.210431252457449&type=3

https://web.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.623318841168686.1073741854.210431252457449&type=3

https://web.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.620400984793805.1073741853.210431252457449&type=3 .

The center «Noyan Tapan» also distributed information and photo reports. Surely we can say that our participants obtained team working skills, they freely expressed their own thoughts, ideas and proposals for future social changes, they developed their sense of autonomy, active citizenship and civic engagement, they learnt how to face and overcome crisis and stress, also how to use different educational, social and learning tools in order to observe, rise up and find solutions in their communities, they established a culture of dialogue. We are sure that they became more autonome, dinamic and initiative to bring positive changes in their life and in the society. 

The project summary and effectiveness:

Vigen  presented the Effectiveness and Engagement
platforms in GlobalGiving.

"Zartonk-89" NGO, summarizing "Providing education for 150 children in Armenia" program, wanted to plan with enthusiasm and responsibly the future process and continuation of this program.  Being aimed at the engagement of other regional groups and representatives, as well as valuing the significance and topicality of group activity, the program invited a meeting-discussion.  The program leader Vigen Mkrtchyan, the people responsible for the regional program, the key employees of the organization were present at the meeting.  The Project Leader and the Regional program leader, summarizing the program, presented during the meeting Effectiveness and Engagement platforms in GlobalGiving, their significance and value, the importance of participating in  Webinars, as well as presented how (by what instruments) to get appropriate scores in order to contribute the organization's rating increase in GlobalGiving and how the scores work.

EVIDENCE PLANNING.

Thank you GlobalGiving! 

Hello, I am Vigen - the regional program leader and the one who is responsible for the program.  Valuing the program's future process and topicality in our organization, as well as being aimed at hearing opinions and offers of the other representatives through teamwork, I invited a meeting-discussion, during which I presented the Effectiveness and Engagement platforms in GlobalGiving and the DIY Toolkit component, which, was a rapid and effective way to plan the future process of the program and to understand how to implement our program more effectively using the 4 parts of this platform. We operated EVIDENCE PLANNING component, which is a quick way to make up and improve what we are trying to accomplish with the help of our program.  This component gives an amazing chance to focus on the main activity of the organization or the program and understand the values that will be reached by the organization due to proper planning of the main activity of its program by taking 4 ranges as a platform.  We used this platform to get the logical evidence which, as planned, will help us to solve our problems.

Thank you GlobalGiving! 

Operating EVIDENCE PLANNING component, my organization and I learned to share easily and fast what we are trying to do in our program.  It taught us to easily understand the effect of our work on our beneficiaries, society, as well as activities of our and other various organizations.  We also learned to plan our future activity as a joint team.  Besides, it taught us to think on how we can be helpful to our beneficiaries by using our basic interests and skills in this large world.  I think this is the primary value learnt by us due to the usage of this component.

Teamwork.

  At the second part of the meeting, the other members and I answered the questions of the EVIDENCE PLANNING component and expressed the answers in pictures.  The meeting was saturated with discussions, various opinions, and offers.  We believe that the teamwork promotes in this way the reinforcement of the primary activity of the program, as well as the engagement of beneficiaries from other regions.  EVIDENCE PLANNING component caused great interest, and we planned with the team leader of the regional representatives to include this component in other programs too.
As a result, the organization increased its rating becoming Superstar (formerly - Leader) due to team work done with high responsibility.