From left: Pietro Turilli, Steve Denne, |
Steve Denne, Heifer International Chief Operating Officer, and Pietro Turilli, Vice President of Central and Eastern European programs, are traveling throughout Armenia this week. They’re visiting some of our existing projects and participating in planning meetings for an expansion of our anti-hunger initiatives here. They’ll be sharing more from their travels over the coming days, but in the meantime we want to help you get to know Heifer’s work in Armenia.
Heifer International has worked in Armenia since 1999 and now has 16 active projects covering more than 50 rural communities. We help smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods through sustainable agriculture practices, and we give them various plants and animals including cows, goats, sheep, beehives, rabbits, chickens, fish, turkeys, buffalos, bull calves, Californian worms, potato seeds, alfalfa seeds, wheat seeds, and fruit tree seedlings.
Our projects in Armenia are diverse and innovative. Heifer Armenia focuses on projects which include economic development as well as building capacity of community groups through a variety of trainings delivered by our professional staff and experts. Trainings relate to cattle breeding, horticulture, plant protection, artificial insemination, beekeeping, and animal husbandry. This leads to a network of self-reliant, economically-developed, effectively-cooperating healthy communities that live in peace and an ecologically- sound environment.
Heifer Armenia also pays serious attention to the youth in the country’s rural areas. Through cooperation with Development Principles NGO, Heifer Armenia has established and successfully runs 26 youth clubs that benefit more than 2,200 children annually. Heifer Armenia created a country-wide rural youth network that trains youth to be peer leaders and peer educators.