Nation Building: One Village at a Time |
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 Rural Development Program |
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| Sometimes nothing can tell the story better than a photo... |
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| Lala and Meri study in Aknaghbyur community school. Lala is from a refugee family and was born in Aknaghbyur. Her family does not have their own house and during the last 15 years they temporarily live in the first floor of the community administration. | Ruzik and Hasmik are sisters living in Teghut village. Ruzik is knitting socks for her grandchild who moved to Ijevan with her daughter's family. |
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| Selling greens is a seasonal source of income for the people living next to the main highway. | Dzovinar is four. She likes to draw and hopes to become a painter when she grows up. |
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| Community members of Aknaghbyur are working together cleaning up the water canal of the village after winter. | Soseh is trying to show her age (that's five :)) |
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Maga Tatik's (73) sons are in Russia, once in a while they send just enough money for her to get by. She managed to buy this calve hoping that one day her grandkids will visit her and will enjoy the fresh milk. |
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| The 18th century church in Brnakot is seldom open to public. A priest from nearby Sisian visits the community on the major holidays to serve a short mess. | The 18th century church in Brnakot is seldom open to public. A priest from nearby Sisian visits the community on the major holidays to serve a short mess. |
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| Off to get some firewood for heating, Ofelia allows her eight year old son to control the carriage. | Geography classroom in the school of Dzoramut. |
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| During the tour of Brnakot community school the principal showed us the desk that he used to sit at as a student forty years ago. Today it is still being used. | Ara and Vartan are brothers playing around in the snow after school. This year the snow was aplenty in community of Brnakot. |
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Similar monuments to heroes and participants of the Second World War can be found in almost all the border villages. The number of people sent to war from Armenia was unproportional to its small size. |
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| Karen and Alik are resting after dragging the bales of hey they are sitting on from a storage area near their house. | A road in Shirak region is empty. People prefer not to venture out into the -25C cold. |
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| A frozen pond near Dzyunashogh is still used by the more industrious villagers for fishing purposes. | At 95, Srbuhi is officially the most senior villager of Artsni. |
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| With almost no running cars, expensive fuel and medieval roads it's back to basics for the villagers of Artsni. | Arman and Sarkis are waiting for their turn to use a handmade sledge. Their parents are in Russia and the boys live in Lusaghbyur with their grandparents. |
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A water fountain (pulpulak) in the town of Aparan keeps on flowing in defiance of the weather. |
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| A shop employee in Ijevan rearranges the goods in an improvised supermarket that sells everything from sugar to shoe-laces. | Gygantic alluminium statue of a happy peasant near Ijevan done in a signature Soviet style. |
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| Vardges owns a little shoe repair shop in Ijevan market and hopes to see the revival of his native village Ditavan. | Donkeys are still a widely used type of transportation in the border villages. |
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| The arrival of the train - Shirak style. | The improvised heater in Jrapi mayor's office. |
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Vagharshak Papi (70) lives in Aknaghbyur and travels to Ijevan everyday to work as a hired hand for the local stores for less than five dollars per day. |
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| Yet another victim of transition period - the Isahakyan village community center. | The unusually harsh winter couldn't stop the children of Isahakyan community from enjoying a ride on their hand-made sledges. |
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| At -20C (-13F) the people of Lusaghbyur still have to make the difficult trip to the community water well several times a day. | This house in Lusaghbyur dates back to 1935. Once a home to a large family, today it is empty and slowly crumbling under the pressure of time. |
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| Isahakyan village is the birthplace of famous Armenian writer Avetik Isahakyan. His statue in the center of the village seems to be quite saddened with the present condition of the community. | The permanently parked and forgotten cargo wagons in Akhuryan reservoir area remind of a thriving economy that came to an abrupt end. |
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A woman from Akhurik on her way to the local beauty parlor. |
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| Movies & Videos |
This is the regular train that serves the needs of the people of Armenia's Shirak region. It has not been replaced for more than forty years and still bears the (now rusty)symbols of the Soviet Empire. Convenience and comfort are two things one will not find here. |
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