Tekeyan Cultural Association Helps Berdzor Refugees Earn Incomes and Live in Armenia: TCA Sustainable Assistance Program

Through small contributions / mass funding we started by creating income-generating opportunities for the displaced families. Tekeyan of Armenia in association with a local reputable Syunik NGO will make investments in agriculture or beekeeping to create income or comforts for their beneficiaries. The recipients get assistance on the condition that, after a waiting period of two years, they pay back on an annual basis the equivalent in produced goods of 10% of the amount of assistance they have received.

After some seed money from the TCA was provided, a fundraising drive was initiated. The response is positive and we have started receiving funds to be allocated to the designated investment scheme. As noted, these funds will serve the following objectives: 1) To alleviate the hardship of these forcefully displaced families and give them the opportunity to earn a living; 2) In two years, to receive a 10% annual return from the beneficiaries in the form of goods which in turn will be redirected to schools or other needy institutions.

The project was coordinated and implemented by Arto Manoukian of Montreal, a TCA board member, monitored by the TCA’s Armenia representative, Gayané Muratyan, with the assistance of Anahit Kosakyan, the last principal of the Berdzor Tekeyan school. This group was introduced to the Syunik NGO by another dedicated Armenian, Tony Halepli of Montreal.

As the Syunik NGO is based in Vayots Dzor province, TCA decided to begin its project in that same province and benefit from the proven experience of this NGO. Honey production was the first form of assistance.

While donations were coming, we did not sit idle. We have recruited multi-children refugee families from Berdzor (Artsakh) who were installed in Vayots Dzor. Another initial requirement from these families were their experience in beekeeping. We have found twelve such families. Syunik NGO interviewed each one of them to see if they qualify. That evaluation process was important, because of the fact that without experience the bees die and our assistance becomes wasted. Syunik NGO qualified eight out of the available twelve families.

We then signed a contractual agreement between Tekeyan and Syunik, a bank transfer was concluded, and the initial eight families received five new hives and five bee colonies each. With the portable wooden hives come services offered by Syunik for them to succeed. These include tools, training, monitoring, follow-ups, extraction equipment, and even marketing the honey. This follow-up is for the long run, to make these families economically sustainable. Once proven successful, they will get more hives, until till they fly on their own.