Youth on the “frontline”

The British Council’s “ACTIVE CITIZENS” program, which includes the Armenian cities of Yeghegnadzor and Vayk with their surrounding villages, launched in Vayots Dzor today and is being carried out by the Armenian Young Women’s Association.

Out of 60 youth who applied for participation, only 30 will have the chance to proceed. Organizers say issues facing the province must be solved through youth programs and with youth participation and the British program has already been implemented in nearly 30 countries of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Today the 60 youth were divided into groups. Each group had to raise an issue and propose a solution and the more active youth moved on to the second stage.

But until then, they were given a puzzle to solve together in order to shape the culture and psychology of teamwork.

“Today they proved that they can work together and contribute to the development of the province through their capabilities,” says President of the Armenian Young Women’s Association Lilit Asatryan.

According to Head of British Council Armenia Arevik Saribekyan, the British Council chose this province since there are relatively fewer international programs with youth participation there.

Governor of Vayots Dzor province Sergey Bagratyan appreciated the program’s role in the province and mentioned that youth must be given a sphere. “Vayots Dzor has energetic resources and today countries’ power is determined by those resources. We can use what we have through youth and active entrepreneurs,” says Bagratyan.

Before moving on to the presentation of programs, the participants will take part in courses to learn how to write and present a program, receive a grant and more. Mutual visits will launch in the third stage of the program since the same program is being implemented in one of the states of Great Britain and several European countries.

The principles of the African Ubuntu philosophy, that is, “I am what I am because of who we all are”, lie at the core of the program.

Tsovinar Karapetyan

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