Oxfam's work in Armenia in depth

In Armenia, Oxfam’s focus is on health care, creating new business opportunities for small-scale farmers, disaster preparedness and amplifying the voices of poor people, especially women, at government level.

Context

Oxfam has been working in Armenia since 1994. With no coastline, scant natural resources and a shortage of basic services, Armenia struggles to build a more prosperous life for its people. A devastating earthquake in 1988, and the collapse of the Soviet Union three years later had left the country in a fragile state. Frozen relations with Turkey, and conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno Karabakh territory, has left the country further in the grip of poverty. Widespread corruption, social injustice and disparity of economic growth continue to affect the lives of the most vulnerable people living in borderline, poverty stricken areas.

How is Oxfam helping?

Oxfam and its partners are working to bring changes to the lives of poor people living in the most remote and isolated communities in rural Armenia.

Health for all

Armenia's state health care has suffered from both corruption and severe under-funding for years, leaving many communities without access to basic services such as essential drugs and local trained health workers.

Since 1994 the Oxfam Armenia healthcare programme has aimed at ensuring that the most vulnerable people in borderline communities of Armenia have access to quality health services. To date, Oxfam and its partners have set up community based health schemes in 140 rural villages functioning under three established health care foundations. Under the Millennium Development Goals, Oxfam Armenia contributed to the improvement of maternal health care by raising awareness amongst women about the importance of pre natal care.

Oxfam Armenia's health project helps monitor and facilitate state obligations by organising regular visits of specialised doctors to villages, setting up routine screenings for women and monitoring health rights violations. Women’s health is improving due to regular visits by specialised doctors and referrals to the mammography centre in Yerevan – breast cancer is one of the biggest killers in Armenia.

Blog: Free screenings save lives

Our focus is shifting towards monitoring state health policy and advocating for greater awareness of health rights, including restoration of health violations through independent health rights ombudsman established by Oxfam.

Lifesaving SMS

Through free hotline consultations with health ombudsman, beneficiaries now have the opportunity to protect their health rights from violation. To reach the larger population, Oxfam is now testing a new technology in the healthcare sector. We’ve launched SMS health campaigns to raise beneficiaries’ awareness on health rights – these alerts are delivered directly to their mobile phones.

“I’m very excited by these SMS messages because in our community there is no information telling people about their health rights. If it wasn’t for SMS and hot line consultations supported by Oxfam, we’d have no opportunity to enforce our health rights. Two years ago my son underwent surgery and I was asked to pay extra money. If I knew about this hot line at that time, I would not have paid and instead applied for support.” – Sofi Avayan told us, project beneficiary from Zaritap community in Vayots Dzor marz.

Farmers in business

Due to lack of agricultural means, such as quality seeds and fertilizers, lack of transportation and bad intercommunity roads, small farmers are unable to get their products to market and gain an income or benefit from the agricultural value chain. Oxfam has been helping rural farmers by providing quality seeds, livestock and agricultural training to generate small income sustainable activities.

Video: Rebuilding lives in Armenia

With support from Oxfam’s partners, farmers are working to form cooperatives, which will work together to increase their output and market their products collectively. The establishment of cold storage facilities / collective centres will help to improve market access as well as foster new trade opportunities.

Oxfam Armenia supports small scale farmer groups to improve their position in the marketing value supply chain, by bettering the management of their activities, from business planning to production, processing and marketing. We also provide new opportunities for farmers to get involved in the growing agro-tourism sector as well as micro- insurance and micro lending for agriculture production.

Disaster risk reduction (DRR)

Armenia is increasingly vulnerable to climate shocks and natural disasters. Currently Oxfam works in ten identified disaster prone communities of Vayots Dzor region of Armenia. We’ve established voluntary Community Emergency groups, providing them with necessary techniques and knowledge, and raising the awareness of school children and teachers, as well as farmers to more adequately respond to natural disasters and climate shocks. At a community level Oxfam also supports small-scale, low-tech and low-cost mitigation initiatives like small culverts, clearing debris and tree planting.  Meanwhile through close cooperation with the Ministry of Emergency and other stakeholders, Oxfam actively participates in shaping the national platform and advocates for adoption and use of participatory community based DRR tools by national government departments. 

Amplifying voices of poor people

In the arena of Armenian politics, the voices of women are rarely heard. As part of the ‘Raising her voice’ project, Oxfam is working to change things by making women active participants in the decision making process in their own communities. With the support of Oxfam’s partners, women leadership groups are helping to trigger dialogue among the community and local authorities.

Visit the Raising Her Voice website

Oxfam Armenia works in remote and disadvantaged communities to amplify peoples’ voices at a decision making level and to ensure that the local government is accountable to community members. We’ve created grassroots institutions aimed at fostering civic activism, triggering dialogue between the communities, local authorities and service providers, particularly through a participatory budgeting process.

The programme also helps increase community members’ legal awareness through consultations, seminars and trainings provided by lawyers in civic centres. Through a ‘Civil Partnership Network (CPSN) of NGOs, the project amplifies the voices of local residents at a local and national level, and helps lobby for  better laws and regulations. This network is the main catalyst for Oxfam Armenia’s advocacy work at a national level. The programme was also designed to provide community development opportunities through micro-projects, develop active community participation and improve collaboration with local governments.

Connecting isolated communities

Due to bad infrastructure and lack of access, many Armenian villages remain isolated and cut off from mainstream society. As a result, community members are often unaware of their legal rights. Through on-line consultations in civic centres, Oxfam and its partners are linking local community members to professional lawyers based hundreds of miles away. These free consultations with city-based lawyers provide opportunities for the most vulnerable and handicapped members of the community to get immediate legal support without spending time, efforts and precious financial resources on transportation. This online hub is also helping young people to access new education opportunities.

Lena Yedigaryan, 24, who took part in this online scheme, said, “Before this civic centre, we had no opportunities for employment As a result of learning new online skills, I was able to find a job”.

The project allows the voices of rural and isolated regions to be heard through new media. It provides knowledge and skills for residents to use social networking tools, and connects members of isolated communities into the global online network. 

Read the blog post about new social media

Last updated: August 2010