Armenian Caritas

German project "Friendship"

Start: 2003

Background

The idea of the project has been initiated by the teachers, students and parents of Kardinal Frings Gymnasium of Bonn,
Germany, in 2003. Up to now the gymnasium organizes annual fundraising activities in favor of children, living in remote
villages of Armenia, aimed at improvement of their educational conditions and solving of the primary problems of the
targeted schools. The project also assists in building of community capacity by encouraging community participation in
all the stages of project implementation. The community has its contribution in the projects, amounted to minimum 20%
of the total budget, realized in the form of unpaid labor force, materials or finance.

During the first two years (2003-2004) of the project implementation 11 schools in distant villages of Shirak and
Gegharkunik Marzes were involved in the project (6 in Shirak region and 5 in Gegharkunik region).

In 2005 the following schools were involved in the project: village schools of Keti and Vardakar villages, the secondary school of Russian frontier troops, situated in Akhurik village, as well as the NGO "House of Plenty", which realizes its activities in the community of Gyumri secondary school No.8.

In 2006 immediate material support was provided to the children of some special schools and orphanages of Gyumri, Spitak and Vanadzor.

In 2007 the sports hall of the village school of Krashen village was constructed, the toilets of the school were renovated, and furniture for the school canteen together with some essential kitchen supplies were donated to the school. In the same year, emergency works of wall reinforcement of Gyumri special school No.10 have been realized..

In 2008 three more projects have been approved by the Donor Agency. In particular: 1) Repairing of toilets of Gyumri
secondary school No.11; 2) Construction of a laundry for Gyumri special school No. 10 and 3) "Community Reception
Center" project of the NGO "House of Plenty". Besides the school support projects, on the initiative of the students,
teacher and parent council of KFG humanitarian aid was provided to 20 needy families of Gyumri, living in container-type houses.

The projects of the year 2009 involved the following schools:

1. Construction of an additional space at the main entrance of the secondary school in Arapi village for fitting of the school toilets and the cloak-room in this space. The community contribution to the project was unprecedented, as it amounted to almost 100% of the total budget.
2. Basic renovation of two rooms and cosmetic renovation of the other space of Gyumri Art school after Merkurov.This project had also its specific achievement: the Municipality of Gyumri contributed 20% of the total project budget.
3. In 2009 we continued provision of humanitarian assistance to the needy families, raising the number of families up to 53.

For 2010 the following projects are foreseen to be implemented:

1. Renovation of Pokrashen village secondary school.
2. Renovation and furnishing of the library in Getk village secondary school.
3. Renovation of Akhuryan village Agricultural College.

Together with school assistance projects we will continue social support to needy families living in container-type houses of Gyumri.

Partners: Implementation of the project became possible thanks to the initiative of teachers, students and parents of
Kardinal Frings Gymnasium of Bonn back in 2003.

Project manager: Anahit Gevorgyan