Across Armenia, feminist groups, grassroots initiatives, researchers, artists, and community leaders are advancing solutions to some of the country’s most pressing challenges – from gender-based violence and climate justice to women’s leadership, economic rights, and social inclusion.
Through the support of the Oak Foundation, Women’s Fund Armenia has been able to invest in these locally led initiatives, providing flexible funding that enables feminist actors to respond to community needs, test new ideas, and build lasting change.
This collection highlights the projects and events supported through this partnership in 2025 and the first half of 2026. Each story reflects the creativity, resilience, and commitment of individuals and organizations working to advance gender justice and strengthen feminist movements across Armenia.
Project: HerCare
Organization: Women’s Rights House
The HerCare project aims to improve access to affordable and environmentally friendly menstrual hygiene products for women and girls in Armenia, particularly in Gyumri and underserved communities. Addressing challenges related to menstrual poverty, limited access to quality hygiene products, and the environmental impact of disposable menstrual supplies, the initiative promoted reusable and sustainable alternatives. The project seeks to reduce the financial burden of menstrual care, improve menstrual health and wellbeing, and raise awareness about eco-friendly hygiene practices while contributing to waste reduction and environmental protection.
Project: Main Narratives of Gender Disinformation Targeting Women Environmental Activists and Their Impact on Their Work
Carried out by: Narine Yeganyan (Independent Researcher)
Narine Yeganyan, a researcher specializing in gender disinformation, implemented a research project examining the gendered disinformation narratives directed at women environmental activists in Armenia. The study explored how harmful narratives, including victim-blaming, sexualization, political manipulation, and gender stereotypes, are used to discredit, silence, and discourage women’s public engagement. The project assessed the impact of these narratives on women’s professional activities, public participation, psychological wellbeing, and quality of life, and developed recommendations for addressing and preventing gender disinformation. The initiative contributed to a better understanding of the challenges faced by women environmental defenders and highlighted the need for stronger support and response mechanisms.
Project: “Green Skills for Sustainability”
Organization: Estonian Council for Refugees Branch Office in the Republic of Armenia
Teachers, school principals, and administrative staff – most of them women – from the schools of Achajur, Sevkar, and Koghb strengthened their knowledge and skills to bring climate education into everyday school life. Through a series of trainings on climate change adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and circular economy, participants learned practical approaches to integrating environmental topics into the curriculum and making better use of existing green infrastructure, including hydroponic greenhouses, composting systems, and solar energy stations. The project also organized a study visit to a school with successful experience in hydroponic agriculture, giving participants the opportunity to exchange knowledge and see sustainable practices in action. Students were actively engaged through environmental project competitions, encouraging them to become part of the solution. By equipping educators with practical tools and fostering environmental awareness among young people, the initiative helped embed sustainability into school communities and inspired more environmentally responsible practices.
(*Photo from Estonian Refugee Council Fb page)
Project: “Girls as Environmentalists”
Organization: Armenian National YWCA NGO
The project supported women and girls in the Noyemberyan community whose livelihoods depend on collecting forest berries and medicinal plants and who are increasingly affected by climate change and environmental degradation. Through collaboration with local authorities, civil society organizations, businesses, and community members, the initiative raised awareness about climate adaptation and sustainable natural resource management. A “Girls as Environmentalists” club was established, bringing together adolescent girls from collector families and strengthening their leadership, environmental knowledge, and advocacy skills. The project also promoted intergenerational learning between experienced women collectors and young participants through awareness campaigns and community outreach activities. By fostering cooperation among local stakeholders and improving knowledge of sustainable harvesting and climate resilience, the initiative contributed to the protection of forest resources, the empowerment of women and girls, and the development of more sustainable and climate-adaptive livelihood practices.
(*Photo from YWCA Fb page)
Project: “Colors of Freedom: Art Against Violence
Organization: “MENQ” Lori Region Youth NGO
The “Colors of Freedom: Art Against Violence” project aimed to raise awareness about gender-based violence, feminist values, and women’s empowerment through art and civic engagement in the Vanadzor community. To create a safe, open platform for public dialogue, the initiative implemented a feminist art contest, a panel discussion titled “Art as a Language of Struggle and Healing,” an exhibition of winning artworks, and a community participatory action. The project successfully engaged 54 participants, including youth, students, artists, and civil society representatives, empowering young women to voice their perspectives, build self-confidence, and foster community networks. Based on these positive outcomes, the organization plans to expand its impact by integrating art into long-term educational components, establishing continuous community platforms against gender-based violence, and regularizing feminist art initiatives at the regional level.
Project: Lori Talk. Women, Art, and Stereotypes
Organization: Open Mind Social-Educational NGO
The “Lori Talk. Women, Art, and Stereotypes” project was a two-day initiative aimed at creating a safe, participatory environment for youth and women to share experiences, support emerging female regional artists, and utilize diverse art forms (poetry, music, photography, and film) to address gender issues and reflect on women’s life journeys in Lori. Held at Loft Vanadzor, the event featured panel discussions with regional female influencers, intimate poetry readings with a local writer, discussions and screenings with female film directors, and live music performances. The project successfully engaged 50 participants, raising the visibility of young female artists, offering professional orientation and self-confidence for younger attendees, and building strong community networking channels. For “Open Mind,” this marked its first large-scale community initiative, allowing the team to successfully navigate unexpected speaker adjustments and learn formatting lessons for hybrid/online coordination. Moving forward, the organization plans to systematically continue this work by establishing a long-term platform for gender-sensitive educational formats, thematic analyses, and expanded local and international collaborations.
Project: Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) & Impact Instructor Training
Carried out by: Zhanna Hakobyan (Social Worker)
The project aimed to build local capacity in women’s self-defense by supporting a social worker’s participation in an intensive international ESD and Impact instructor training in Albania. Addressing the need for practical, psychological, and physical safety tools for women, the initiative focused on mastering full-force self-defense techniques, situational awareness, and modern pedagogical methodologies. The project sought to enhance the participant’s professional growth, foster international networking, and equip her with the certified instructional skills necessary to establish empowering, trauma-informed self-defense programs for women and girls back in Armenia.
Project: False Narratives About Women Across Regions
Organization: “Success Lady” Youth NGO
The project aimed to uncover, raise awareness about, and dismantle pervasive false narratives and societal pressures confronting women across diverse socio-geographic environments in Armenia, specifically targeting Yerevan, Martuni (Gegharkunik), and the mining communities of Alaverdi (Lori). Spanning seven weeks, the initiative utilized a peer-to-peer approach, organizing multiple “listening party” discussions that safely engaged youth, medical college students, local journalists, and community activists. To expand its public reach and capture generational differences in how these pressures are experienced, the organization heavily upscaled its digital media outreach, producing short-form educational videos, personal video interviews, and a dedicated podcast focusing on gendered disinformation ahead of elections. The campaign successfully fostered an open, empowering environment that helped local women recognize normalized systemic pressures, build public speaking confidence, and establish supportive community networks, while simultaneously enhancing the organization’s research capacity and multimedia production skills for long-term regional advocacy.
Project: “Women of Bazarstan”
Organization: “Tech Degh” Cultural NGO
The project successfully supported the logistical and organizational aspects of the immersive performance “Women of Bazarstan,” which is uniquely set inside a minibus format. Addressing logistical challenges related to vehicle rental and coordination costs, the initiative provided a critical platform for female traders, transforming their personal memories, daily struggles, and life experiences into theatrical art. The performance created an intimate, empathetic space for social dialogue, allowing the audience to emotionally connect with the narrative of women traveling to Istanbul. This support allowed the creative team to focus entirely on the artistic process, secure the project’s presence in their permanent repertoire, and transition toward a sustainable, independent ticketing strategy for long-term regional performances.
Project: Empowering Young Women in Ijevan
Organization: LOFT Ijevan Youth Center
Connected to the advocacy roots of International Women’s Day, this project aimed to empower young women in Ijevan and surrounding Tavush communities by providing safe, inclusive spaces for non-formal education and civic participation. The initiative tackled regional gender disparities and limited access to professional mentorship through a targeted series of interactive panel discussions, mentorship sessions with successful women role models, and an emotional intelligence workshop. To foster broader community dialogue, the project launched a public thematic photo exhibition focused on women’s rights and social change. A key long-term outcome of the initiative was the establishment of a self-organized Women’s Development Club at the center, ensuring a continuous, sustainable platform for local youth to lead future workshops, screenings, and community-driven feminist advocacy.
(*Photo from LOFT Ijevan Fb page)
Project: Women’s Rights in the Language of Art
Organization: “Spitak Helsinki Group” Human Rights NGO
The project aimed to address the stigma and social barriers that prevent women in small communities from speaking openly about their challenges and rights due to the fear of being targeted in tight-knit social circles. To provide a secure outlet for self-expression, the initiative organized a series of guided art therapy workshops for local women and girls under the mentorship of a specialized expert. Participants used canvas painting to visually channel their experiences, worries, and perceived rights violations. The project culminated in a March 8 International Women’s Day public exhibition and panel discussion titled “When Art Speaks About Women’s Rights,” bringing together the participants, civil society members, and state representatives to foster a safe community platform for open dialogue on women’s rights and local gender issues.
Project: Organizational Capacity Strengthening
Organization: Sose Women’s Issues NGO
The organizational capacity strengthening project aims to enhance the institutional and technical capacities of “Sose Women’s Issues” NGO in Syunik Province, Armenia. The organization works with women survivors of domestic violence, displaced women from Artsakh, and other vulnerable groups, and provides psychosocial, legal, and community-based support services. Despite its active engagement in multiple donor-funded initiatives, the organization faces gaps in monitoring and evaluation systems, financial management, and long-term sustainability planning. The project therefore focuses on strengthening staff skills in monitoring, evaluation, and data analysis, improving the design and use of tailored assessment tools, and enhancing financial resilience through improved grant-writing and fundraising capacities. It also includes staff wellbeing support through self-care and burnout prevention activities. Overall, the initiative seeks to build a more effective, accountable, and financially sustainable organization capable of delivering higher-quality and more measurable impact for the communities it serves.
Project: “Act Now: Forum Theatre for GBV Awareness”
Organization: Hub Artsakh
The Act Now: Forum Theatre for GBV Awareness project aims to strengthen innovative, participatory approaches to addressing gender-based violence (GBV) in Armenia, with a focus on women and girls displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh as well as other vulnerable communities. Hub Artsakh identifies a persistent gap in safe, accessible, and empowering spaces where survivors and affected women can openly reflect on GBV experiences beyond traditional, lecture-based awareness activities. To address this, the project introduces and expands the use of Forum Theatre, which is an interactive methodology from Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed primarily operationalized as a feminist advocacy and community engagement tool. Through a structured Training of Trainers (TOT), women-led civil society organizations were equipped with facilitation, storytelling, and trauma-sensitive performance skills to design and implement their own community-based Forum Theatre sessions. These activities enabled participants and audiences to actively engage with real-life GBV scenarios, explore alternative responses, and collectively reflect on power dynamics and social norms. By embedding and multiplying this methodology across multiple CSOs, the p roject sought to foster sustained, community-driven dialogue on GBV, strengthen women’s leadership in advocacy, and expand culturally grounded, participatory tools for gender justice in Armenia.
Event: Building a Gender Sensitive Penitentiary System in Armenia
Organization: Center for Legal Initiatives
The event aimed to present and discuss research findings on the gender-sensitive assessment of Armenia’s penitentiary system and the specific challenges faced by incarcerated women. It brought together representatives of state institutions, diplomatic missions, and civil society organizations, including the Human Rights Defender of Armenia, the Deputy Minister of Justice, and ambassadors from the Czech Republic, Canada, Norway, and the European Union, along with a very small number of additional attendees. The conference was organized through opening remarks, presentations of research results, and panel discussions focusing on key issues such as access to healthcare, reproductive rights, mental health services, education, rehabilitation programs, childcare, disability accommodation, and overall detention conditions for women.
While state representatives primarily highlighted ongoing reforms and institutional efforts, civil society participants emphasized that many of the challenges remain structural and require deeper systemic change within the penitentiary system. The event also included moments of disagreement between state and civil society actors regarding the nature of existing problems and the extent to which reforms have been sufficient. Overall, the conference created a platform for dialogue on women’s incarceration in Armenia and highlighted both the progress in gender-sensitive policy discourse and the continuing gaps in addressing the lived realities of incarcerated women.
Project: “Frozen”
Organization: Symptom Error
The project “Frozen” was a short experimental musical animated video created in 2026 that addressed themes of bodily autonomy, sexual violence, boundaries, and silence through a combination of animation, sound collage, music, and text. It aimed to create an alternative audiovisual space for expressing and reflecting on sensitive and often silenced experiences, particularly related to gender-based violence and control over the body.
The video was produced in March-April 2026 and shared on social media platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, where it was made publicly accessible. The project functioned both as an artistic work and a form of digital advocacy, reaching an online audience and encouraging reflection on consent culture and gendered experiences of violence.
Project: What Would the City Look Like if It Were Designed with Women’s Experiences in Mind?
Carried out by: Aghunik Ter-Stepanyan
This research and advocacy project reimagines urban planning through a feminist and intersectional lens, exploring how cities can become safer, more inclusive, and more equitable by centering the lived experiences of women and girls. Drawing on interviews, personal stories, participatory methods, and architectural analysis, the project identifies key challenges related to safety, accessibility, age inclusivity, diversity, social and economic justice, and environmental sustainability. It proposes practical strategies for creating cities that better support caregivers, marginalized communities, older adults, people with disabilities, and diverse identities. By amplifying voices that are often excluded from urban planning processes, the project advocates for cities that prioritize care, dignity, accessibility, and equal participation, positioning urban design as a tool for advancing social justice and improving quality of life for all residents.
