Our history

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We could never have done all the work that was done on our own. Over time we have received help from groups of people in the Netherlands and Armenia. It started with sorting books in the Candea College, later loading containers in Duiven and then the various groups that started working around our center.

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Eva worked with primary school teachers in three visits. Her goal is to let children enjoy making music. Self-built instruments help with this, as does simple conducting, or making music together without the outside pressure to perform. In Armenia, parents want to see achievements and that is sometimes at oddsthe objective is that you learn to be responsible yourself and perhaps only want to have fun.

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The fact that the Shirak Marz Regional Library had a very large collection of foreign literature through our work in the Netherlands has contributed to a special development: The Italian embassy has made money available to renovate the dilapidated post building in Old Gyumri and reserve the space for the library. Now the library did have a buildingnothing to put in it. In the East of the Netherlands, many libraries had to merge or close due to budget cuts. We sent the furnishings of libraries from Beek, Didam, Wehl and Nijmegen, among others, together with tables from the Candea College and office furniture from RABO-Vastgoed, by container to Gyumri. Government members regularly come for a coffee in the beautifullibrary.

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We were given a very concrete goal for a Christmas campaign: a mobile milking machine for the Special School No. 1 in Article. We donated chairs and tables to this school and director Chknavoryan needed an opportunity to let the cows of this Special School out into the mountains on their meadows during the day. That way they could produce more milk.VWO 3 of the Candea College raised the necessary €1000 through the sale of Christmas cards and the machine could be purchased in Armenia.

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In the first years we mainly focused on schools in the villages around Gyumri. Containers full of school desks and educational materials have been shipped by us. There was a need for everything, especially in the villages. The teachers of the schools participated in introductory training on Dutch preschool education with “the corners”. Often the teachers arrivedEva's music projects also attended these training sessions. The contacts with our center are still there. We try to further spread our ideas through digital master classes by Karin Kriehn.

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We were able to send written-off computer systems from RABO-Vastgoed to our projects in Armenia. We have made this known to NGOs and schools in Shirak Marz. We have asked them for a contribution according to their means to help us with the transport costs. About twenty NGOs took advantage of this and the contracts were signed in "our" library. Thatresults in a lot of paperwork, everything must be recorded for at least 5 years. Our name was then established in Shirak.

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Azatan preschool

The first preschool was started through the Azatan NGO. The teachers were volunteers from the NGO. The children were able to play with toys that we sent. Later, a preschool was built at the school in Azatan. Our things then went there. It was our first step in the field of education in Armenia.

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De Toermalijn primary school in Duiven has a shoebox campaign for children at Special School No. 3 organized in Gyumri. The children filled a shoebox with items they thought their peers in Armenia would like. The boxes went with the second container. A special return day was organized at the Special School to...to hand out boxes.

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We consider the tractor project as our first “real” development project. Hovik Papoyan from the Azatan NGO made the proposal to support him and his family in the purchase of a tractor. Together with a bank loan, an amount of €3,000 would be enough to purchase a subsidized tractor. We agreed with Hovik that he would pay the €3000 in 5 yearsrefund. In exchange for our support, Hovik plowed the fields of poor families in Azatan free of charge. Hovik indeed repaid the amount within the agreed time.

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For the French School No. 10 in Gyumri we collected sports equipment and sent it with a container. Candea College and Symbion in Didam have donated sports equipment such as volleyballs, benches, etc. to furnish the beautiful, but completely empty gym.

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Our second partner in Gyumri is Gevorg Amiryan's Shirak Marz Regional Library. When we started working with them, the library was housed in a small damp storage room. It lacked everything. This is where we saw our project emerge: Foreign-language literature, because there was no English or foreign-language book to be found in the library. There are thousands of books about itwent to the library. Ultimately, they were better supplied with English, German and French books than the libraries in Yerevan. In addition to books, we also sent tables and chairs.

The refurbished copier from Nashuatec, now Ricoh, still works after 15 years.

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The first container of the ultimately 17 containers that we loaded and shipped. The storage on Annie Bodde's farm in Duiven was full of clothing and household goods. These goods mainly went to the Zatik orphanage in Yerevan. Later it became impossible to ship these goods any longer and we switched to sending school furniture and...furnishing material for the Regional Library and the schools around Gyumri. But other NGOs such as Crossing Roads in Vanadzor have also received material from us.

The United Armenian Fund paid for three containers, and we paid for the rest.

Over time it became easier and easier for us to import the containers. The Humanitarian Committee, which must decide on this, already gave the containers the green light before they left the Netherlands.

We had a lot of help loading the containers. We would especially like to mention the students from Candea College, who helped us with the hard work.

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The Zatik orphanage in Yerevan is our oldest project, together with the library project in Gyumri. When our Annie Bodde gave up her farm, she ended up here with her farm machines and wanted to invest in the orphanage farm. She had a drop-off point for clothing and household goods for the 300 children in the orphanage in her stables in Duiven. Ourcooperation started there and eventually yielded 18 containers filled with relief supplies. After a few years it was made impossible for us to ship clothing and household goods from Armenia, so we concentrated on school materials.

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Azatan NGO

Our first partner in Shirak Marz. Hovik Papoyan had started in Azatan in a cold and cheerless building. With an enthusiastic group around Hovik, they started the first preschool with our stuff. Lilit Gyunashyan from this group would later become our director. The NGO provided education on agriculture, theology and computer skills on Sunday. We have the first computersdelivered.

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Our first big action. We wrote to schools in East and Central Netherlands asking if we could collect written-off books in English, German and French and send them to the Shirak Marz Regional Library of Gevorg Amiryan. The collected books were sorted and stored in lists with students and colleagues from the Candea College in Duiven. Around 70 boxes ofbooks were shipped, together with a Nashuatec copier, a gift from Nashuatec (now Ricoh). The transport company Tiemex from Zevenaar arranged and paid for the transport.

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2006

Armenian carpets

In Azatan there is still knowledge of making Armenian carpets. We think that preserving this tradition and preserving its technology is important. Precise examples still exist. Based on this, Lilit, for example, can tie a carpet upon request.

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