Women’s Fund Armenia, in partnership with Equality Fund, continues to invest in feminist organizations and women-led initiatives that strengthen communities, advance gender equality, and expand access to care, justice, and collective action across Armenia.
Through this collaboration, eight organizations received support to implement projects addressing women’s mental health, organizational resilience, sexual violence awareness, maternal health, civic participation, feminist healing, and gender-sensitive institutional reform. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the power of local organizations to respond to the diverse needs of women and girls while building stronger, more sustainable feminist movements.
Creating Spaces for Healing, Care, and Community
Several supported initiatives focused on strengthening women’s wellbeing by creating safe spaces where participants could heal, connect, and build resilience.
Sose Women’s Issues NGO is implementing the You Are Not Alone project, bringing together survivors of domestic violence, displaced women from Artsakh, and other women through facilitated group sessions that promote emotional recovery, trust-building, trauma awareness, stress management, and self-care. The project also recognizes that sustainable support begins with healthy organizations by introducing collective care practices for staff to prevent burnout, strengthen teamwork, and reduce the risk of secondary trauma.
Space for Women Solidarity NGO organized Women’s Circle: Reclaiming Women’s Identities, a three-day residential gathering that created a supportive environment for feminist learning and collective healing. Through discussions, storytelling, and somatic practices, participants explored internalized sexism, collective trauma, emotional expression, and women’s identities while building lasting connections across different communities. The initiative also identified future priorities, including reproductive health, sexuality, and intergenerational trauma, laying the groundwork for the continued development of the Women’s Circle as an annual feminist space.
Community-building is also at the heart of You Are Not Alone NGO’s “Strong Women, Strong Community” project. The initiative is establishing a sustainable women’s club organized into four thematic sectors that encourage women with diverse interests and experiences to connect and support one another. During the first phase of implementation, the Creative Women’s Sector and the Young Mothers’ Sector were successfully launched, with the latter already engaging 68 participants, reflecting a strong demand for community-led spaces.
Advancing Women’s Health and Rights
Women’s health and access to informed, compassionate support remain essential priorities.
Kanani NGO is implementing the Psychosocial Services in Maternity Hospitals as a Guarantee of Dignified Motherhood project, which promotes greater awareness of perinatal mental health among mothers, families, and healthcare professionals. The initiative developed practical training materials, referral tools, and service maps while providing training and supervision for healthcare providers across four regions of Armenia. By strengthening professional knowledge and improving referral pathways, the project contributes to reducing stigma and expanding access to psychosocial support during pregnancy and after childbirth.
Throughout Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Sexual Assault Crisis Center NGO carried out an extensive online awareness campaign designed to improve public understanding of sexual violence and provide survivors with accessible, trauma-informed information. Through five educational videos addressing the impacts of sexual violence, immediate post-assault response, and survivor experiences, the campaign reached hundreds of thousands of people across social media platforms, encouraging informed public discussion while increasing awareness of available support services.
Building Stronger Organizations and Institutions
Sustainable social change requires resilient organizations and institutions equipped with the knowledge and systems necessary to support women effectively.
Right Side NGO focused on strengthening its long-term organizational capacity through specialized staff training, mentoring, governance improvements, and financial sustainability planning. Alongside institutional development, the project prioritized staff wellbeing by providing wellness support, recognizing that healthy teams are fundamental to effective advocacy and service delivery.
The Center for Legal Initiatives implemented Gender-Sensitive Capacity Building for Professionals Working with Incarcerated Women, providing specialized training for 33 professionals working within Armenia’s penitentiary, probation, and prison healthcare systems. Covering trauma-informed care, women’s health, communication, self-care, and gender-sensitive approaches, the project contributes to the implementation of Armenia’s penitentiary reform agenda while highlighting the need for continued institutional change and sustained professional support.
Encouraging Critical Thinking and Democratic Participation
Strengthening democracy also requires creating opportunities for critical dialogue and civic engagement.
Through School of Complex Pasts 2026, CSN Lab brought together young people, researchers, civil society representatives, and experts to examine the concept of “choice” through political, social, and cultural perspectives. Combining lectures, discussions, participatory workshops, and an election simulation, the program encouraged participants to strengthen their critical thinking, media literacy, civic engagement, and understanding of democratic processes while integrating feminist perspectives and principles of inclusion throughout the learning experience.
Although these projects address different issues, from maternal mental health and sexual violence prevention to organizational resilience and democratic participation, they share a common goal: strengthening the ability of women and feminist organizations to create lasting change in their communities. Through its partnership with Equality Fund, Women’s Fund Armenia continues to invest in locally led solutions that expand access to care, strengthen feminist movements, and support organizations working every day to build a more equal and just Armenia.
