Story and Photos by Karine Matevosova | Program Coordinator | Heifer Armenia
Translated by Liana Hayrapetyan | Communication and PR Coordinator | Heifer Armenia
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The people of Lukashin, Armenia, have long been engaged in not only farming, but also horticulture and gardening. It is very sunny in the Armavir region, where Lukashin is located, and it is most likely the “taste of the sun” that makes the fruits and vegetables from this area uniquely tasty.
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A youth club member shows her seedlings planted in a recycled bottle. |
Following the experience of their fathers, grandfathers and elder brothers, members of the ecology direction of the town’s YES! Youth Club decided to put their newfound knowledge gained at the club by growing organic strawberries with recycled plastic bottles.
“Using plastic bottles, we save space and, most importantly, we get rid of the garbage of these bottles gathered in our village,” said youth club member Armen. “After this we are going to organize additional action on garbage removal to have a cleaner Lukashin. We are done with planting—we’ll have to wait and see the results. If the results are good, we are going to plant more and more strawberry seedlings next year to have a better harvest.”
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The youth cut across the plastic bottles and filled them with biohumus-enriched soil produced with their farm of Californian worms. Next, they planted the small seedlings, which they grew in advance, in the bottles. Finally, they hung the bottles in the open air to save space.
Norik, the local ecology trainer, was as enthusiastic as the children. He gave instructions, which the children followed with interest, working very skillfully and quickly.
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One after another, YES! Youth Club members are engaged in a variety of ecological, clean and nature-friendly activities, such as biohumus production, tree planting, garbage removal, and strawberry growing. They understand that nature is the most precious treasure, and it is up to them to preserve it to live in a cleaner and healthier environment.
The YES! Youth Club in Lukashin village is one of the newly established youth clubs through Heifer Armenia’s Young Agriculturists Network of Armenia (YANOA) project.
