Where We Work

Armenia

Overview

NEF returned to Armenia in April 2004 after a 75-year hiatus. Although NEF’s bonds to the country are strong, NEF left Armenia—and the 17,000 children in our care—most reluctantly in 1929, expelled by the Soviets. NEF was the only foreign agency allowed to operate in the Caucasus after Sovietization of the region.

NEF’s re-engagement in Armenia began with a focus on street children. Working with the Canada-based NGO, Street Kids International, NEF co-sponsored workshops to build skills to communicate with adolescents about major issues such as drugs, sex, AIDS—all vital to their well-being—and to tap into their evident assets: “street smarts,” ambition, responsibility, and entrepreneurial skills.

In 2007, NEF undertook an exploratory mission to identify opportunities to support rural economic development. Those initial efforts led to a strategic alliance with Business Pareta, the leading Armenian firm specializing in rural economic development, and Armenia Fund USA, one of the primary channels for philanthropic action among the Armenian Diaspora in the U.S. In 2009, this consortium initiated a collaborative effort—still in its pilot phase—to develop a model for local economic development combining micro-enterprise, micro-finance, and micro-franchising. This initiative draws on complementary areas of expertise and a common understanding of the importance and challenges of grassroots economic development for poverty reduction in rural Armenia.