COAF Launches Comprehensive Rural Development in the Model Cluster

Town Hall Meetings are Held in all Villages of the Model Cluster

Coordinating Committees are Elected

Yerevan, Armenia, April 21, 2006 — Following the presentation of its Model Cluster project at a public forum on February 1, 2006, the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) organized town hall meetings in Argina, Dalarik, Lernagog, Myasnikyan, and Shenik to begin the Comprehensive Rural Development Program in the cluster. In addition to the Participative Rural Assessments completed earlier, these town hall meetings served as the right setting for discussion of community priorities and identification of critical needs for revitalization.

All five town hall meetings attracted large numbers of local residents, young and old, and were very informative. COAF staff validated the information gathered through the Participative Rural Assessments, learned more about the most critical problems, heard the views of individual villagers, identified the priorities specific to each community, and listened to the suggestions from the residents on various solutions. At the conclusion of the meeting, the participants in each town hall meeting elected Coordinating Committees to serve as COAF’s key contacts in each Model Cluster village.

Following these town hall meetings, COAF staff held weekly meetings with the village Coordinating Committees to fine-tune the details of each priority project, to work out a detailed project proposal, to develop the operational budget following reconstruction, and to set up the management of each building. For each reconstruction project, the Coordinating Committees also submitted a complete list reflecting the community participation—in terms of donated cash, labor, and building supplies. Agreements between COAF and the village Mayor and Coordinating Committee have been signed for each project due to begin in May/June 2006.

The projects discussed and agreed upon include the reconstruction of the Community Center and the School in Shenik, relocation of the kindergarten of Argina in one section of its high school, accommodation of the kindergarten and the ambulatory in the high school building of Lernagog, working out a business plan for the Cultural Center in Dalarik, and merging the Mother & Child Wellness Center and the Regional Clinic in Myasnikyan. COAF will also implement a broad range of health and social programs in all six of the Model Cluster villages, together with an economic development program that will create cooperatives and medium size businesses in milk collection and consolidation; dairy products processing; fruit drying; refrigeration of produce; and wool processing and carpet weaving.

CONTACTS: Sunny Uberoi, (212) 994-8206; or e-mail info@coafkids.org