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Considering the importance of empowering women later in life and making their voices heard, the Women’s Fund Armenia has provided financial support to a number of projects, which you can see below:

• Olga Baghdasaryan – Svetozar NGO

Olga wants to provide professional counseling to rural women over 40 regarding health problems caused by menopause and to alleviate and eliminate them. They plan to organize psychological conversations about emotions, the emergence and manifestation of emotions and their cause-and-effect relationships, as well as form women’s positions to emphasize mutual support, healthy intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships. The target groups of the project will be women over 40 from 38 rural settlements of Artashat community of Ararat region.

• Nazik Armenakyan

Within the framework of this project, Nazik wants to do visual research, travel to different regions of Armenia, talk and discuss various issues with women of her age, and take pictures of them. In particular, she is interested in the issues of women’s sexual health, job opportunities and self-expression, self-care. This will be a series of portraits of women aged 45-46, which will show how different women and their problems are. A number of questions are interesting and exciting to Nazik: how they live, how they dress, do they take care of themselves, do they have a personal space, how much time they spend on themselves during the day, what they dream about and etc.

• Silva Chobanyan

Within the framework of the presented project, Silva wants to reflect on the stereotypes about women over 40 and the pressures from society through a theater performance. The heroines of the play are different, they are from different communities, they have lived different lives and experiences, they are interested in different things. Through the project, Silva wants to talk about the differences and solidarity of women, about their reflection at a more mature age, about self-analysis and overcoming complexes.

• ArtHouse – Gohar and Hermine

Gyumri’s Arthouse NGO program addresses such issues as how to encourage women over 40 to improve their quality of life, how to care for and take care of their own “self” (physical, spiritual, mental health), and how to get rid of taboos and age restrictions. As a result of the art project called “40 or…” and etc.”, a small video film will be presented in a video-art format, with a multimedia approach, where the psychological problems of middle-aged women working in the cultural centers of Gyumri will be presented, behind the scenes will be presented, and the ways of overcoming all that.

• Irina Hovhannisyan – Astghatsolk

With Irina Hovhannisyan’s initiative, the work of the club, which stopped its activity during the war, will be resumed, using various techniques, including art therapy and master classes. During the club meetings, the women’s group will address such topics as “Women’s friendship and mutual support after 40”, “Difficulties of finding and keeping a job among women over 40”, “Women over 40 and health” and other topics which the club members will consider important.

• Mary Agakhanyan – Renaissance film

The first stage of the project implemented by the film director Mary Agakhanyan involves meetings with women who have cancer, which will be followed by a series of (anonymous) interviews, filming of documentary materials. Interviews with different women will be in written text and audio. The text will be printed and the sound will be used in a preliminary short film. In the future, the project will be developed to the creation of a full-length film intended for cinemas.

• Mariam Aleksanyan and Ani Mkrtchyan

The project implies a series of well-being and mental health courses organized for a group of women in the Berd community of Tavush region, which will enable the initiators to help women find ways of self-discovery and self-realization. According to the initiators of the program, they often see that women need to express themselves, to speak, to understand their uniqueness, for which creating platforms can bring great changes. Mariam and Ani believe that the formation of self-organized groups and the promotion of women’s initiatives in communities can bring a big change.

• Susanna Shahnazaryan

Susanna Shahnazaryan plans a series of discussions with the participation of women in an informal setting, on the topic “When I was younger”, during which women will tell their stories about what has changed in their lives after 40 and what they would change if it were possible. Short essays will be prepared on the issues and stories raised during the discussions.

• Marianna Danielyan

Within the framework of the program initiated by Marianna Danielyan, a group of women aged 50+ will perform a new concert program, where for the first time, exclusively female songwriters’ works will be performed. The concert will include 12-15 piano works by foreign female composers of the classical period and modern Armenian female authors. Details coming soon.

• Marine Karoyan – ARE Cultural Found

Through the grant, Marine Karoyan plans to host at the HayArt cultural center women who have reached high positions in the field of art: heads of museums, cultural centers, cultural media, curators, and journalists. These women are from the capital city of Yerevan, from other regions of Armenia, and from the diaspora. The stories of these women will be filmed, and the film will not only be very interesting and educational, but will once again show the image of a modern Armenian educated woman, the necessity of her presence in public life.

• Haje Bakoyan and Ovsanna Harutyunyan

Within the framework of this project, the colleagues want to show the “other side” of life to the Yezidi women of the Nor Kyank community and the surrounding area. Questions about being able to do a favorite job will be discussed, that being “40 years old” is not a verdict, but just a number. During the meetings with the psychologist, several important issues will be addressed: the importance of knowing and valuing oneself, the freedom to express one’s opinions and thoughts, the importance of having a job and earning money, not looking at “40 years old” as a judgment. A meeting will also be organized with the leaders of the abovementioned region in order to make the voice of women more audible.

• Satik Badeyan

The project is planned to be implemented in Sevan community of Gegharkunik region. In the first phase of the project, seminar-discussions on menopause will be held among a total of 50 women aged 40-65, with the involvement of a professional, with the opportunity for questions and answers. Satik and her associates have had such a successful experience among younger women, introducing them to issues related to their bodies and reproductive health, and they believe that they will succeed this time as well. The women who participated in the meetings will spread the knowledge and information they received among their peers. If the group wants, they will also be involved in social entrepreneurship training.

• “Aware Women, Powerful Community” initiative group

The project involves the organization of thematic meetings and events among 15 women aged 40-55 of the Charentsavan community to raise awareness, during which, through special art-psychological therapies, women will be able to find their own self, discover hidden emotions, opportunities, realize the correct perceptions of body and age and with their help to emphasize their role in solving community problems.

• “Support to Women and Children” NGO

The main goal of the project is to establish a platform and space for women to support each other in the enlarged Dilijan community of Tavush region, where women over 40 will gather and through informal education, they will learn new specializations according to their preferences and find work, they will also participate in community life by discussing public issues.

• “Hripsimyants Shunch” NGO

Within the framework of the grant, women over 40 in the Stepanavan region will be included, who have tangible and deep-rooted issues such as low self-esteem, negative perceptions of body and age, passive lifestyle, absence of physical and emotional space, etc. The program includes both meeting-discussions and external events in which participating women will be involved.