Within the framework of a grant project implemented with the financial support of Kvinna till Kvinna and called “Development of Feminist Philanthropy in Armenia and Strengthening Feminist Solidarity”, the Women’s Fund Armenia is supporting the following organizations and initiatives of women:
- Women in Black – Meetings on feminist and peace-building issues – The main goal of the program is to unite young girls and women on peace-building and self-care ideas from a feminist perspective, thus contributing to gain anti-war, anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist sensitive knowledge. As a result, each participant will have a certain resource: knowledge of self-care and about the above-mentioned feminist ideas, which will later be spread to a wider segment of society. Within the framework of the program, discussions on peace-building and feminist issues will be held in various youth centers in the regions. In parallel with the courses, psychological group meetings will be held, aimed at self-care. At the end of these meetings, a series of discussions of feminist articles in Armenian will be held at the FemLibrary, which will be attended by the youth of the regional group, other young women, and girls interested in community issues. After discussing feminist articles, two feminist training sessions will be held with these youth groups, during which zines will be developed on the topic of peacebuilding, feminism, and self-care.
- Gohar Khachatryan & Anahit Ghazaryan – The printing of the “Writings | It’s a War” book – During the Second Artsakh War, Anahit and Gohar wrote about their feelings and emotions, which is planned to be published as a book. It is a correspondence-diary between two women, one of whom is in the war zone—Stepanakert, Goris—and the other—abroad. The text aims to bring to the literary space the different feelings, worries, experiences, fears and anxieties of two women and to document the voice of a person going through a war, in this case, the voice of a woman. The goal is to bring to the field of discussion a story that can be paralleled with one main, official narrative. The authors also want to discuss the war’s routine, being in uncertainty, and making uncertainty a place to live and talk from. After the publication of the book, it is planned to hold reading-discussions in Hrazdan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, and Goris, encouraging women to talk about their feelings during the war.
- Democracy Today NGO – Women professionals at the frontline of war and peace – Democracy Today NGO plans to do research among women professionals in various fields including doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, human rights defenders, who have been defending human lives, human rights and peace during and after the 44-day war. Through personal interviews with them the problems these groups of women faced during the war and after the war will be identified. Based on the results of the research, recommendations for their protection will be developed. The project will contribute to the development of policy and legal standards. One of the goals of the research is to make visible the role and contribution of women professionals, human rights defenders, and frontline workers.
- Armine Zakaryan – “Ways of Expressing Peace”: Prospects for Peace in the Region after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, According to Armenian Women Peacemakers and Human Rights Defenders – The main goal of the program is to find out the positions of politically active women in Armenia on peace-building through research and to provide as much visibility as possible for the dissemination and publicity of independent discourses. In terms of the long-term goal, the program aims to promote the following issues:
- Provide an opportunity to publicize independent, not-popular views on peace;
- Enable women’s approaches to peace and peace-building to influence the emergence of a new language of peace, possible discourses and agendas;
- Promote the formation and dissemination of various discourses on peace within the community;
- Draw attention to and promote new wide research on peace and peace-building topics, which will include the approaches and perceptions of as many segments of the public as possible.
