Addressing the Critical Needs of Children Living in Poverty

Since its founding in 2000, COAF has focused on revitalizing rural areas by employing a grounds-up approach to address the critical needs of children, as well as to establish economic development activities that enable people to acquire the skills needed to help themselves. In its short life, COAF’s Model Village pilot project has delivered resounding results. COAF’s partnerships with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, along with other local and international organizations, have allowed us to successfully channel financial resources into a highly efficient program in one of the most economically disadvantaged regions of the world.

The categorical success of COAF’s Model Village project has been recognized by international aid agencies as an exemplary template of sustainable development. This has encouraged us to expand the scope of our efforts. The Model Cluster project will utilize a similar template. It will involve five villages clustered around the pilot village. The integrated development program is designed to address the critical needs of a decaying cluster of villages with a particular emphasis on children’s needs: health care, economic development, infrastructure renovation, and educational and social reform.

Although COAF’s programs are currently concentrated in rural Armenia, the innovative Model Village/Model Cluster approach of addressing rural poverty can be implemented in any impoverished region of the world. We aspire to form alliances with organizations operating in other regions and to share our methodology in order to eradicate poverty wherever we can, paving the way for peaceful resolutions to many of the regional conflicts that exist today.

Save a Generation to Preserve a Nation

We all share a common belief that every child is entitled to the essentials necessary for healthy development. Children in too many regions of the world, including post-Soviet Armenia, are victimized by impoverished conditions. Time is not on their side. It is critical that we help catalyze a process of sustainable recovery by making a collective effort to dramatically improve the quality of life for these children.