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Empowerment & Local Action (ELA) Armenia

Building the capacity of poor local communities in rural areas in Armenia.

13.04.2010

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Countries:	Armenia
Donors:	Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MinBuza), The Netherlands; Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Germany
Partners:	AWHHE
Issues:	Energy & Climate, Water & Sanitation
Duration:	01/2008 - 12/2010

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For more information about the Empowerment & Local Action program, click here.

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Project

Organisation: Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment
City: Yerevan
Project title: For Sustainable and Environmentally Sound Rural Armenia

Issues & short description:

• Rural Development
• Agriculture
• Water
• Sanitation

ELA as continuation of the successful TMF project in Armenia

Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment continue their activities on Ecological sanitation, agriculture, water and capacity building and lobbying in the frame of the ELA project. Activities have been expanded to three more villages. 20 Household toilets will be build, organic farming demonstration trails will be organized together with the farmers, and activities to improve access to safe drinking water will be carried out.

The socio-economic gender survey is providing valuable understanding and insights in the new villages, to which the project can be adapted. Meetings with the women’s groups in the villages are taking place regularly. The schoolchildren are involved in nitrate testing and identifying environmental problems in their villages.

The ELA project is for this organization a follow up of the TMF project implemented 2006-2007, in which framework two school toilets and six household toilets were build, and many more activities on Agriculture, Water and capacity building were carried out. The results from the project are successfully used for lobbying on national and international level, propagating the right to safe sanitation and drinking water for the rural population.

Sustainable development from ‘Grassroots’ level

Charitable Women’s Club is based in their target village Saghmosavan. In former times it was a famous tourist destination, and recently tourism is starting to revive again. The Church in the village is from the beginning of the counting of time, and the village is situated in a beautiful environment. In 2007 a project on eco-tourism was supported by WECF. In the frame of that project waste bins, information shields and a shelter were installed around the church, which is the main attraction of the village.

In the frame of the ELA project they will continue their activities on sustainable agriculture, with support of Armenian Women for Health and a Healthy Environment. They will also build a toilet for the tourists who are visiting the church, and don’t have a place to go to the toilet now.

Charitable Women’s Club is working a lot with children, who are more receptive for new ideas. In their turn, they educate their parents. Seminars on composting, agriculture and ecological sanitation have been conducted, and many households started composting. A farmers group will be organized, who will learn about alternative agriculture including plant protection, composting, crop rotation, etc. In the frame of awareness rising, information material on ecological sanitation and alternative agriculture is disseminated amongst the population.

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