Vanadzor: city of green wind

After 3 wonderful days in Gyumri we arrived to Vanadzor, placed between mountains and forests. All what we wanted to feel during this hot summer we found there, light wind, that was blowing from the green mountains, bringing freshness and smell of the forests.

Beside the beauty of the nature of Lori region we also noticed that people are very nice. It was such a great experience for us to communicate with youth from Lori region.

Our training took place at NGO Center Vanadzor office and we are very thankful for their support and involvement in organizing it.

Participants were students, activists and just people who were interested in youth activism, human rights, gender issues and more.

Our impressions from training were that young citizens are willing to raise problems and find solutions for them, make a change and empower city for development.

Vanadzor is a city where you can find well known youth organizations. But the most important for us is that famous and respected human rights defender Artur Sakunts has a powerful organization there, and his team works to promote democracy, peace, freedom and to protect human rights in all Armenia.

This was not our first work trip to Vanadzor and not the last. Vanadzor and its activists are one of good examples for Armenia that others should follow and learn.

Gyumri rules

Hey good morning, after great time in Gyumri it was hard to sit in front of computer and share all the best with you. That beautiful city is getting more and more active every year, that makes us happy, they have nice places, amazing organizations that make positive changes for people.

First of all we want to thank New Generation NGO and their staff for spending their free time with us. One thing was cruel, Lusine was working all the time, she was coordinating our interviewers in Yerevan, Gyumri and Vanadzor, so all the time she was on the phone and working till late evening.

Sevak joined us on Saturday, spent great time with the team and on Sunday morning he went to do his favorite thing - of course he visited museums. Smart decision to learn more about the history of Gyumri. While Sevak and Nvard were walking from one museum to another and enjoying the architecture of the city, Lusine was doing her work with interviewers.
Mamikon finally managed to have the first staff meeting of the new project which is built on a strong relations of PINK and New Generation NGOs.Meeting was more than perfect. Professional and well prepared staff, and the best doctor in Gyumri will work on HIV prevention project in Gyumri.

- When I say doctor, he is not just a doctor, he is the most tolerant, smart and interesting person I could imagine, he talks about sexual and reproductive rights better than anybody I have ever met,- Mamikon shared his thoughts with us.

Ok, what we missed, oh Saturday evening. Another group of friends invited us to a nice place. You know who they are, young and smart generation of Gyumri, these are Youth Initiative Centre and 5th Floor NGO representatives. And what a nice surprize, they had guests from Turkey, a group of journalists and a representative from Hrant Dink Foundation.

There is another thing, which is really important in Gyumri, if you are there and you want great food, there are several nice places. But it is almost tradition to go to "Fish place". Have you ever heard about the "Fish place" in Gyumri? Oh, we went there. That was something unbelievable, no more comments.

To be honest, those 3 wonderful days in Gyumri gave us so much positive feelings. We already think to take one week vacation in August and spend it there.

Thank you Gyumri, thank you people!

Gyumri, here we come

Yes, we worked on weekend and we are happy for that. Here Nvard and Lusine took mini-bus and directed from Artik to Gyumri. Mamikon joined them there and brought handout materials for training participants. Actually he had also other work to do in Gyumri, to meet the staff of PINK's new project in Gyumri but this is another story.

Youth in Gyumri is always happy to host different trainings and activities and we are even happier to cooperate with them. Beside this, there are several organizations in this beautiful city that organize various activities for youth, for example New Generation, Armenian Caritas and Youth Initiative Center. Armenian Apostolic Church has a big social center here in Gyumri, actually they supported us to conduct our trainings there, and we are so thankful.

Nvard and Lusine were glad to greet those 35 young people during their trainings and it was a pleasure to work with them.

First stop: Shirak

These day we have training in 4 cities of Shirak and Lori Marzes, son June 29 our 2 trainers Lusine and Nvard hit the road to Artik, Shirak. We call these 2-day training sessions Knowledge and Rights, as the trainers use non-formal educational methods to give basic knowledge about human rights, tolerance, gender, democracy, civil society and other relevant topics. This year we managed to have these trainings for youth in Yerevan and we had 3 times more participants than we expected.
Now it is time to meet your in the regions (Marzes) and to conduct these training in their towns.
We had about 20 participants in Artik. What was really interesting, people said that youth is not that active in this town but we had totally different impressions, you may see it in the picture. Even Ter Levon, the priest who supported us to organize the training, noticed that participants were really excited and actively involved, and it was amazing.
So the first practice of these trainings in the regions was successful. We hope to be in touch with youth and cooperate in future.

It is summer, make your days pink

This year PINK will make your days more colorful, will conduct events and organize interesting meetings with youth. All the details of our work-trips, holidays and fun we share will you in this blog and also tweet them via @pinkarmenia. You may follow #pinksummer hashtag on twitter as well.

Everything is so simple and so pink, take your chance to spend your summer with PINKies.