Democracy Education

Civic education - Civic awareness raising tours, electoral seminars, Human rights awareness programs, publishing newspaper, cultural performances - puppet theatre, ecological initiatives etc. From 2005-to 2007 AYWA was publishing a youth newspaper “New View” the aim of which was to raise youth problems in the Republic of Armenia and find solutions to them. It was the only youth newspaper in the Republic of Armenia. Due to financial reasons “New View” isn’t being publishing at this time but we intend to republish it as there is a big demand for it.

AYWA has established the “Youth Theatre”. It organizes performances in Yerevan and in the regions. Through the puppet theatre AYWA spreads knowledge about Human Rights and Women Rights within young people.

AYWA implements specific projects the aim of which is to educate young women as voters (as well, first time voters) and observers for elections. As well, AYWA is involved in voters’ lists’ correcting process and projects.

US Alumni Project

The actual manifestations of civil and political participation are listed among core standards of evaluating the role and position of youth in any country and in Armenia in particular. The youth participation is being evaluated based on the rate of their involvement in the process of decision-making on state and local government level.

The recent observations and surveys show that young people mainly do not participate in the decision-making process of our society. However, this does not mean that young people are not interested in the issues concerning them. It also does not mean that they are not prepared to find solutions to their problems. Limited involvement of the young people into decision-making process results in lack of knowledge about their problems. They remain discouraged, uninterested and indifferent to political and social life. Young people have to participate actively in social, economic, cultural and political life.

Since October 2008 Armenian Young Women Association is realizing the US Alumni project “Scaling-up Youth Participation” funded by US Embassy.

The goal the project is to facilitate the development and implementation of youth participation projects at local, national and regional levels.

The outcome of the project will be developed and adapted Manual on Design, Management and Implementation of the Youth Participation Projects at local, national and regional levels and its dissemination among key youth organizations and youth activists.

The Manual will cover issues such as: encouraging youth participation in local and national public life, and for lobbying local and national authorities to develop policies, means and structures and actions for encouraging such participation. Topics such as participation, citizenship, democracy and civil society are addressed during the course.

The Manual will provide comprehensive information to understand how to develop youth projects of a participatory nature involving all relevant stakeholders at local and regional level, including: project development, co-operation (skills, approaches), strategic planning.

Also it will provide details and peculiarities of instruments useful for youth participation scaling-up process such as: working with authorities and different actors, skills training, networking, transferring the knowledge gained to the home context, relations between different actors, tools and resources and structural support mechanisms for youth participation.

According to the project time-table the Manual will be ready for dissemination by April, 2009.

Inclusive education

Since August 2008 Armenian Young Women Association is implementing the “Access to Education is Ensured for Children with Disabilities” project in Lori marz funded by the UK Embassy in Armenia.
In many countries, it has been recognized that educating children with disabilities together with their peers enables them all to receive a quality education and develop social relationship that helps society in general to be more inclusive. However, the practice of separate education continues in Armenia. There are very few services or structures, which address the developmental and educational needs of disabled children. The existing kindergartens and schools have little capacity to accommodate children with disabilities in mainstream classrooms. Despite the adoption of the Armenian Law on Persons with Special Educational Terms, adopted in May 25, 2005 still only 14 mainstream schools provide with inclusive education to children with disabilities throughout Armenia. The lack of experienced and qualified teachers, the lack of financial resources, the physical emnvironment at the schools and the lack of people’s understanding of the importance of mainstreaming hinder the existing schools from enrolling children with disabilities.

This project is based on the social model of inclusive education where the education system contains a problem. Inclusive education acknowledges that all children can learn, and that they learn at different rates. It acconeldges that every child has an inherent right to education on the basis of equality of opportunity, no child is excluded from, or discriminated within education on grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, disability, birth, poverty or other status.

The “Children with special needs - right to be included!” project is being implementing in 2 schools of Tumanyan district, 5 schools in Alaverdi town and 1 school in Akhtala town.

Within the frames of this project implementation AYWA is collaborating with the National Institute of Education of the Ministry of Education and Science and “World Vision- Armenia” NGO.

As a result of this project the capacity of teachers will be increased to be open and able to deal with diverse groups of children, the participation of parents, teachers and children in school life will increase, the accessibility for children with disabilities to educational facilities will be improved, the classrooms will be enriched with developmental materials and toys, the awareness of community members on disability issues will increase. In addition, continuous close cooperation with national government will allow ensuring sustainability of the inclusive education in target schools with the perspective to be resource schools for the establishment of inclusive education in all Tumanyan district of Lori marz of Armenia.