The progress of the young experts.

Dear donors,

We are glad to inform that due to you we carry on supporting the new generation of young journalists to explore the main problems of their communities, to carry out research and analytical work.

The main goal of the project is to encourage young people and teenagers of the Republic of Armenia to be able to identify community issues and offer solutions. All this can be achieved when beneficiaries of the program have an opportunity to participate in non-formal training modules, interactive meetings, where they will have the opportunity to freely express their thoughts and ideas, cultivate problem-solving mechanisms together.  Young people are the community's motivation and we attach great importance to providing them with media knowledge, skills to use digital media to be able to use social media in civic journalism.

This project makes the community problems, challenges more visible and the perceptions, attitudes of young people change daily. In general, the community is becoming one of their priorities.

In order to be able to solve social issues in the communities, it is also necessary to change the visions and perceptions of our beneficiaries related to their positive impact on the community. Part of our training refers to pluralism, tolerance, teamwork. The study of these topics is important for the beneficiaries, as it results in the increase of the social impact of this project.

The other part of the interactive meetings is dedicated to the use of digital tools, information technology. They require all this to make a community-based study and inform the public. As young experts, they need to find the roots of the problem, to understand what mechanisms can

be used in this process.

Due to your support, we continue the second coaching session, during which young active experts have an opportunity to get the answers to their questions and, of course, make a stronger connection with the team. During this meeting, they were involved in teamwork, where they tried to understand their role and influence in this project. It is important to note that they are willing to share the experience and capabilities during the meetings with the other beneficiaries of the remote communities in Armenia.

Dear donors, Your donations are still being addressed towards the work of building sustainable and strong communities. We are ready to share the progress we will make in the near future. We are grateful for your support and high impact.

During the meeting, one of our beneficiaries, named Astghik, wanted to send a message to all donors of the project. We present you Astghik's little story.

Hi, I'm Astghik. At first, I was uptight to talk about the problems in my community. Sometimes there were obstacles that forced me to cover my thoughts and suggestions. Due to this project, now I can use all my abilities and capabilities to help my community prosper. I think we are a strong team and we will use that advantage in the most effective way. Thank you!

#GivingTuesday and Your Investment:

Dear donors,

Due to your support and high impact on this project, we carry on supporting children living in remote communities in Armenia and help them regain their knowledge.  As this project gives basic education to children marginalized from society, it is important for us to follow them and, of course, make the education a priority. Doing different types of work and sometimes being exploited, they forget that they will certainly need the missed knowledge and experience in their future.

As usual, the training modules are conducted in non-formal learning methodologies through interactive games. In this way, we are able to provide more than just educational material: we can motivate them and make this process more effective and enjoyable.

Our beneficiaries, who are mainly school-aged children, periodically share the high impact of this project both in their intellectual development and in the process of building a strong and sustainable community. They think that they are little leaders and have an important role in their community.

We would like to inform you about wonderful news. The beneficiaries will now be given an opportunity to participate in interactive training. They wanted to use the opportunities of modern technologies and in particular, study the topics included in our educational plan through presentations and tutorials.  We believe that in this way the impact of education on our target group will also enhance.

Dear donors,

Our team wants to take part in this very important and unique day and you are the main characters.

#GivingTuesday is a global movement that kicks off the biggest giving season of the year with charity and gratitude. It inspires people to take collective action to improve their communities, give back in better, smarter ways to the charities and causes they believe in, and help create a better world.

Zartonk-89 has joined #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that harnesses the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to encourage philanthropy and to celebrate generosity worldwide. We would like to celebrate this important and special day with you and share Arthur's message, who is one of our beneficiaries, directed to all the donors.

Hi, I'm Arthur. I am very glad to participate in this project. It helps me to learn with my friends. We are looking forward to each lesson as besides the knowledge I also obtain new friends.

Today I learned about #GivingTuesday special day and I want to direct my message to all donors to use this opportunity and support us. Now I attach importance to the role of education in my life.

Failure leads to success:

This project report is a submission to GlobalGiving's 2017 Fail Forward Contest, where organizations are asked to share a story of when they tried something new that didn't go as planned and how they learned from it. Enjoy!

 Dear donors, partners,

“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”- B.F. Skinner

This special report gives us the best opportunity to share with you those failures by learning which we become stronger and more stable. Some people fail in some period of their work, though they come across with difficulty when understanding the basics of their occurrence. That is an essential and important circumstance which must be paid attention to and we should be able to make right conclusions. In order to be able to overcome the obstacles, we need to find new and effective ways which will lead to success.

If we watch we'll see that the carrier of many successful people started with failures. And without which it is impossible to imagine a progress in the work that you are involved in. Our organization highlights the acceptance of the failures, without which it is impossible to imagine an innovation or growth.

Sometimes people are ashamed to confess their failures but by learning through failures we create ways to success.

Our organization investing all the abilities and experience implements special courses and training modules in the rural regions and communities of Armenia and encourages the children to obtain their missed knowledge and which is the most important, encourages them not to get exploited. As the beneficiaries of this project are mostly schoolchildren we use such methods those would help them to understand the provided knowledge fast and easily. In this process, we use the methods of non-formal education with interactive games. Though sometimes there are activities or methods which fail. First of all, we do some studies, inquires among our direct and indirect beneficiaries who give us a great opportunity to explore and estimate their needs. Find new solutions by listening to them. It's important to mention that we can estimate the effectiveness of the project by comparing the assessment questionnaires before and after the conduction of the project. Besides these all, we are now ready to separate those points, which failed and how we are going to use this experience to improve our work. 

Point number one: We conduct special educational training courses for the children, which give them to complete the missed knowledge both in natural sciences and humanitarian subjects. Though when the training courses are heavy and overloaded, they sometimes feel tiredness and cannot continue their active participation. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What is the offered solution?

Key N1: From this experience, we learned that it's necessary to include refreshing and activating games in the training course and make the project more effective and pleasant. After coming across with this problem we also offer to give them home-tasks so they will choose an interesting topic and share it with their friends, describe what they have read and what they have studied. This is one of the best means to see them more vigorous and motivated.

Point number two:  Help the children to work freely in a team and express their ideas and suggestions. As we provide basic education to children marginalized from society it is important for us to help them to overcome the psychological problems and difficulties. We have come across with this important problem. There are children which cannot work in a team, show enough patience to listen to the speaker. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What is the offered solution?

Key N2: In order to be able to correct this problem we are planning to include psychologists, special teachers who would help them to overcome those difficulties and get integrated into the society freely.

Point number three:  Plan the training courses with our teaching staff. At the beginning of the implementation of the project, we had the following failure; the trainers could not provide the children the educational material within the estimated time period as they did not possess the methodology of non-formal education. We offer the following solution for this failure.

What's the offered solution?

Key N3: Organize training modules for our regional representatives and the staff directly involved in the project. We have conducted and still carry on conducting those trainings in our organization during which they have an opportunity to share their suggestions, ask their questions and receive exact answers. After this meeting the trainers confess that they can manage their time, resources and of course provide the beneficiaries with comprehensive and interesting materials.

Dear donors,

We hope you will value our honesty as we develop and grow when we are able to acknowledge and accept our failures. We highly value your commitment to this project, which is to give basic knowledge to children marginalized from society and help them not to get exploited.

We hope that you liked this special Report provided us by GlobalGiving.

Giving Week and the impact of the project:

Dear donors, partners,

We are glad to inform that due to you we carry on to support the young journalist of our new generation and with their help, strong communities are going to be established.

“ICT as a Tool for Young Voices” project continues to encourage the new generation of the journalists to explore their community problems, develop their communication and representation skills as well as get acquainted with the modern achievements of the technology. They always need to participate in non-formal training courses including interactive games. 

The main goal of the project is to support the youth, teenagers, and young people as well as support their active participation in their community development process, input knowledge related to technology and capability related to research to strengthen the community. 

Due to your support, the beneficiaries of this project continue to participate in interactive training courses both in Yerevan and in other rural regions of Armenia.

Before organizing meetings with them we listen to their interests, ideas and suggestions, the studies they have done and those challenges they faced. And in order to be able to implement this all they need regular coaching, training courses in media and journalism.

We implement training courses in Yerevan with the purpose to train our regional young experts and guide them in their work. During this period we organize active discussions, teamwork, interactive practices. This is the best way to listen to them face to face. Then these young people share the knowledge they obtained and the news to other journalists after going to their regions and help to increase the impact of this project.

Dear donors, your donations continue to be addressed to the improvement of abilities, media skills and other important activities of the new generation’s young experts. The participants keep on proving that their steps become more visible and measurable day by day. Some of them also state that in this world which is highly developed with technology the youth has been given a great opportunity to put all their efforts into the work.

Vigen, who leads this project, presented the Giving Week and the Bonus Day during the meeting with participants in Yerevan. This is one of the best opportunities to invite the donors’ attention to this project and address the received donations to the increase of the communities to the project. The following presented to you is Artyom's short story and the speech.

Hello, I'm Artyom. I think this project may help me to live in a stronger and more developed community. Now I study how I can find solutions to those basic problems with which I come across. Being a part of this all, I'm sure that my expectations will be justified very soon. As I learned about Giving Week and Bonus Day I address my small speech to all the donors of the project so they will support in the performance of these important initiatives.

Project achievements:

Dear donors,

Due to your important role in this project and your donations we carry on conducting non-formal training courses which are supposed to provide basic education to the beneficiaries of the rural marzes’ communities of the Republic of Armenia. It’s essential for us and we’re responsible for sharing with you the achievements we recorded during this period.

Children from the rural communities of our country feel the necessity of participating in such educational courses where they could have an opportunity to complete the missing knowledge and skills. Though being vulnerable and constrained they keep on showing up with suggestions, how they can get out of that situation and appear in the society more confidently. And the key solution to these problems is only the education, for sure. This time also the beneficiaries wanted to pass the interactive section of the basic educational training course in the open air. First of all, they got familiar with those topics which our trainers had prepared.

The main destination was to improve their general educational status both in subjects in humanities and natural sciences and also give them an opportunity to show up in a team, as by listening to their peers they simply get encouraged. Our trainers presented the beneficiaries the role and the importance of education, as well as helped them to know their rights and responsibilities in the nearest future so they wouldn’t get exploited in the labor market. This is one of the main purposes of this project.  The other section of the meeting was dedicated to Armenia. The children were telling about Armenian history and culture. During this section, they had an opportunity to image those cultural and historical values which exist in their countries. Then present their works to their friends and the project coordinating team. This is the best way for them to develop their own opinions, thoughts, and ideas.

Dear donors, partners, we highly value your commitment to this project. There are a noticeable growth and progress amongst our target group members, which can confirm our periodic surveys and quizzes for checking their knowledge. At the end of each meeting, our team conducts surveys which are directly related to the provided material. This, in its turn, gives us an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the project also in other communities.

We appreciate that you support the formation of an educated society in Armenia.

We present you Anahit’s short story and speech addressed to donors which she presented during the meeting.

Hello, I’m Anahit. I’m very happy to be involved in this project. I like to be in this environment where I can complete the knowledge that I have missed. Today I gained new valuable knowledge. Particularly I’d like to separate the section of the course related to Armenia. I have painted the symbols, the historical and picturesque sights of my country. I appreciate all the donors and people who try to accomplish our dreams.

Bonus Day and our progress. REPORT:

Dear donors, our partners,

We’re glad to inform you that due to you we could support the young journalists of our new generation.

“ICT as a Tool for Young Voices” project carries on the non-formal, interactive training courses which are aimed to use the opportunities of the achievements of modern technologies, civic journalism for the improvement of the communities. The main purpose of the project is to support the active involvement of the youth, teenagers in their communities’ involvement process, help them conduct journalistic research and cover what happens in their communities. The beneficiaries of the project show great interest in how to solve the main problems in their communities when they are face to face with the challenges.  They learn how to run their resources and time correctly and effectively during training courses, seminaries from time to time. Being familiar with the principals of modern media and journalism they can conduct an estimation of the situation and do analysis freely. In each region of the Republic of Armenia, we have chosen one young expert who is willing to support their team. Such as by creating blogs, social platforms, and groups, which makes easier and faster to build an open audience. These experts improve their knowledge and skills through online and non-formal meetings and share with regional groups’ representatives.

Dear donors, your donations have been directed to the meeting with the young regional representatives of the new generation during which we discussed those solutions which are realistic to conduct in the nearest future.  The participants insisted that the role of technologies must be increased in modern society. Vigen, who coordinated these meetings with the target group presented how one can overcome the existing obstacles and share about it with large audiences.  In order to increase the effect of the participants in the project, they were given supplementary educational resources and topics, which they can use during their community researches.

During the meeting, we informed the beneficiaries about the Bonus Day which is going to be held on the 12th of July. They were excited to hear about that day, which has an essential importance to bring donors’ attention on this project and increase the effect of the project in all regions of the Republic of Armenia.  One of our young experts, Samvel wanted to share his short story and direct his speech to donors. 

Hi, I’m Samvel. I live in a community which has multiple problems for sure. Though they become more visible and solvable day by day. Due to this project, I am more confident when doing my journalistic researches. I think each young person can reach their aim if they learn through failures. As a young journalist I would like to highly appreciate the donors for such an opportunity and by learning about the Bonus Day I would like to address to all the donors of our project to do donations and involve more beneficiaries in this project. Thank you for supporting us.

ICT and your eminent investment: Report:

Dear donors, our partners,

We are glad to inform that due to you we continue to support the new generation of young journalists to speak out their community issues.

 The “ICT as a Tool for Young Voices” project continues the non-formal, interactive training course for the young journalists aiming to support the target group via modern, innovative technologies, also by using all their efforts in favor of the community.

The main purpose of the project is to promote the involvement of the youth of the Republic of Armenia in the process of their communities' development and also take up steps using journalistic, creative skills and abilities which would help them to cover those challenges they come across.

Our beneficiaries witness various issues in the rural marzes of the Republic of Armenia. They try to use those resources which would help to get out of that difficult situation. Though having not enough skills and abilities they cannot look for solutions. As a result, our beneficiaries need to show up in teams, build teamwork, and increase their knowledge and the level of awareness.

Dear donors, your donations got addressed to the implementation of the non-formal training's following stage.

This time our beneficiaries have had an opportunity to get acquainted with those social and media platforms, with the help of which their can build an enormous audience, which in its turn will give an opportunity to increase the level of awareness about what is going on in the community. 

In this section, each participant told about their perceptions related to the influence and opportunities of such platforms. In most of the participants' opinion, the modern tools always have a tendency of rapid progress and development.

 And the use of this potential makes the 14-18-years-old active and initiative young experts explore the strengths and weaknesses of their communities and also estimate the current situation there.

In order to make the meeting more interactive they were separated to groups and through teamwork, they started to image their ideas and perceptions about how ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and its tools can support to find solutions to the key issues on the posters. The participants decided creative and interesting names for their teams and each of them showed up with their individual stories.

Dear donor, we appreciate that you are next to us and you support us during the implementation of these very important steps. All your donations are directed to support the development of the communities of the Republic of Armenia.

 The following is Yana's small story and the message addressed to all our donors.

Hello, I'm Yana. I live in Khor Virap community. I'm very happy for getting involved in this project. It helps me to find out my abilities, become more confident and patient. I think that we, the youth is the guarantee of our community. I feel very responsible for participating in this training as I have a mission to support my community. Today and every day I am obliged to support and encourage my friends. As we are a team which has a huge aim. I thank you for this opportunity.

Our progress due to you:

Dear donors,

We are glad to inform you that your donations help to conduct non-formal educational courses in the rural marzes of the Republic of Armenia and encourage our beneficiaries to get general knowledge and skills for the sake of their happy future. We highly appreciate your investment in our project and we are ready to share with you those achievements which happened due to you.

In rural marzes, our children being in a vulnerable condition do various hard work in their communities and villages, and as a result, they miss the opportunity of getting basic education. By communicating with their peers they feel constrained, non-self-reliant and unequal. Children need to be in non-formal environment where they will cover the missed knowledge easily and in an interesting way, through interactive games, discussions, practical activities.

The children of our communities show great interest in getting involved in the open classes where they can compose upon the view of the beautiful scene and of course participate in the main educational activities.  Due to your support, they played an activating game and each of them had an opportunity to share their small ideas which they would try to implement after getting motivated with education. They share their stories with great enthusiasm. By having stationery and art supplies the beneficiaries portrayed the ways which will help them to reach their aims. Then the trainer introduced topics which included general knowledge on natural sciences and humanities. Besides the theoretical knowledge, we also signify the importance of developing the practical skills and abilities. Children have described the essence of the teamwork, the main advantages, and the method. They were listening with great attention and wanted to get involved in such work frequently. In order to make the meeting more interactive and interesting, our trainers taught them more known expressions dealing with education. This is one of the best options of motivating them towards education and help to reveal the necessity and the importance of educated society.

Dear donors, your donations were directed to the implementation of a very important process:  provision of children's basic education in our target group. Your each step inspires them to be courageous, competent and responsible. We are grateful to you, that you support us. And your donations got directed to their bright future and to the educated society in Armenia.

Qnarik, one of our beneficiaries told her impressions and wanted to share with the donors.

Hello, I am Qnarik. I live in a community where I am surrounded by good friends, as they told me about this project.

At first, I was confused and couldn't believe that it is possible to cover my missed knowledge through another way. I participated in this interactive courses and started to believe in my strength and abilities. I compare this with a magic stick. Now I am moving forward in more confident way, I wish to become a photographer in order to show the world how much my community has changed. My friend and I are very grateful to those people who helped not to despair. Today I answer confidently:

Yes, the education is a great gift and opportunity!

Our achievements’ in Ararat and Vayots - Dzor region:

Zartonk-89 NGO in partnership with IDA (International Development Alliance) and Erasmus+ conducted the “Volunteer Theorems” project in 2 communities of 2 marzes of the republic of Armenia.

According to the conducted surveys in the remote marzes of the republic of Armenia, the

youth have less opportunity of getting involved in such projects and appearing in the non-formal educational environment. That was the main and essential factor for choosing this topic.  As a target group, 40 young people /20 boys and 20 girls/ from 16 to 25 years old have been selected showing great interest in getting involved in volunteer work both with local and global levels. 2-days training modules will be conducted with non-formal educational methodology, through intensive games, discussions, arguments.

The course started with an introduction game which allowed the participants to get to know each other and of course, they could get involved in teamwork.  Then our trainers introduced what is volunteerism, the advantages, and opportunities of getting involved in volunteer work. The youth shared their ideas and suggestions such as in which field they would like to do volunteer work and also which is important, they introduced those skills and abilities they are ready to invest in order to support the development and empowerment.

In order to make the training more interesting and interactive, the participants divided into groups and created small posters with the following theme “My notion of volunteerism”.

This was the best way of building teamwork and increase the self-worth, self-efficacy in the volunteers. At the end of the course, in M&E section they had an opportunity to estimate and come up with new suggestions. The implementation of the project had an essential impact on the process of the exploration of the youth’s abilities and the exploration of the self-expression.

The role of ICT in our successes:

Dear donors, our colleagues want to share with you with their successes and progress, the greatest factor in which is your invest.  “ICT as a Tool for Young Voices” project continues to arrange retraining programs for young journalists of the new generation, which aim at contributing through modern, innovative technologies to our target group to voice up the challenges and issues, which they confront with.

The primary aim of the program is to contribute to RA youth engagement in the development process of their communities, to develop their skills of highlighting their community issues and searching for solutions for them taking modern technologies and their journalistic skills as a tool and platform.

The young people want to elucidate their community news, to tell the world about their community competently with the help of modern technologies, to arrange events and training, to activate the community, however the lack of communication skills, the lack of the ability of voicing up community issues on social platforms make them to keep their thoughts and ideas to themselves, not to express them and, moreover, to disguise the problem instead of voicing it up.

Dear donors, your donations were directed to the implementation of the second phase of the retraining courses for the young journalists of the new generation.  In this phase, our young experts were given the opportunity to present through non-formal education methodology the obstacles, which they are ready to overcome and, certainly, to present the strong aspects of their communities, which they are going to develop.  The target group of the course again were 14-20 young people, who are active, motivated, initiative and want to be engaged in the process of strengthening their community.

In the second part of the meeting our beneficiaries were given the opportunity to get information on significance and modernity of social Medias in civic journalism and, the most important, to create audience on similar platforms, where they can share their perspective steps and make the big mass of the population hear the issues and offers concerning them.  Our beneficiaries expressed their keen interest towards photojournalism, during which they revealed how to attract readers attention though expressive photo.

After analyzing and researching the future actions of our young people and existing situations in remote regions we came to the conclusion that in the future phases of the project implementation visible changes will occur in the work style of our target group, the best evidence of which is their motivation and diligence.

We are grateful to you for being with us.  Your donations again were directed to the implementation of these important steps.

Here is Slava's impressions on his story, and his message to all our donors.

Hello, I am Slava.  I live in Arapi community.  I think that the connection between me and this project is special because I have been interested in and inspired by technologies since school years.  I have always thought that those are the best relatives of human beings.  Today and every day I am ready to use my all skills and abilities for the sake of strengthening our communities. 

Dear donors, I am sure that with your help and through the support of my team friends we will shape a society under the rule of freedom of speech and tolerance.

Your contribution to our achievements:

Dear donors, our partners, it's our pleasure to inform you that Zartonk-89 NGO has been awarded as TOP-RANKED and VETTED organization of 2016 by GlobalGiving as a sign of gratitude and our hard work. Our team highly appreciates this special gesture and wishes to share the success, achievements, and results that we recorded in this project. 

The main purpose of the project is to support the vulnerable and working children of the remote marzes of the Republic of Armenia to acquire basic education by using our specially designed course plan, also create free and unconstrained environment where children can communicate with their peers, acquire new friends and fully integrate into the society.

In the distant marzes of the Republic of Armenia being in vulnerable condition, children do manual hard work in their communities and villages, and as a result, they miss the opportunity of acquiring basic education which is a very important factor in the process of exploration and development of children's intellectual abilities. They become unconfident, self-contained, depressed, they don't get motivated to acquire knowledge which is essential for the rest of their lives.     

Dear donors, your donations were directed in the implementation of providing basic knowledge to our target group of children.

Our regional representatives conducted courses in their communities using non-formal educational methodology through interactive games.

Children were participating in the educational section with great enthusiasm and were asking questions about topics which greatly interested them.

In order to make the course more interactive, our specialists used presentations which gave more descriptive explanation to each topic.

This time the beneficiaries had opportunities to get basic knowledge about technological and digital means and to explore the modern information technologies, and by selecting as a tool the required information about different spheres, such as mathematics, physics, geography, history, etc. As a result, our target group reached to the conviction that one can get knowledge also from the internet. They were promised to learn foreign languages in the nearest future, so they can get knowledge also from various foreign literature.

By analyzing and examining our beneficiaries upcoming steps, their disposition of this program, their enthusiasm and expectations, we came to conclusion that in the future stages of the implementation of the project positive trends would be registered in distant communities, the number of participants will increase in our target group and in the nearest future we hope that the project will spread in all the villages and communities of all the distant marzes of the Republic of Armenia. We appreciate your support and your donations which got directed to the process of implementation of these essential steps.

Please find presented Zempira's story and her message to our donors.

Hello, I am Zempira. I love in Arapi community. From this course, I acquired knowledge which gives me power and motivation. I liked when our trainers taught us the basic computer and internet skills, how to search for books and information about the spheres we are interested. During my free time, I like drawing and sewing. I hope that the acquired knowledge will help me to become the best specialist in the field which I'll choose.