International Youth Camp “Patriot” in Anaklia, Georgia

Friday, September 9th, 2011

We /Arthur Movsesyan, Mariam Gevorgyan, Lilit Manukyan, Davit Galstyan, David Sahradyan and Mkhitar Kafyan/ visited to Georgia, Anaklia (the sea-side of the Black Sea) from  August 5-14, 2011.  The theme was cataclysms and modern technologies. Duration of each camp was 12 days including arrival and departure. In each camp were 260 participants from Georgia and all around the world, and English was the main working language in the camp.

The aim of the camp was to involve youngsters in non-formal educational process; to increase youngster’s physical, emotional and intellectual potential; social integration; to promote international friendship amongst youngsters from all over the world and to involve them in intercultural learning process; to increase youth active participation in society.

We were in Tbilisi, Batumi, Zugdidi and of course Anaklia. It was a great opportunity to meet young people from all over the world. During the camp we participated in everyday life of the hosting community, as well as attended cultural and fun activities organized by authorities. We used to discuss our free time activities with camp leaders, organized excursions and visits around the area. There were olympic games, international evenings, trainings, group times and so on…  Of course, the most impressive moment was, when Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili visited Patriotic Camp in Anaklia.

Positive impressions from this camp did not leave us till now, during 10 days camp became our home, participants – our friends, we learned how to treat each other equally no matter the race, religion, age or any other factor. Now, at the end, we have developed on a personal level and after the camp we all became good friends…

A New European Stay – Youth Exchange in France

Friday, September 2nd, 2011

On 21th of July, a group of 24 young Europeans of 15-18 ages, who came from Armenia, Belarus, France and Italy, was received in the city hall of Annville. During the project (from July 20 to August 3), the youth together with AVRIL association participated in the works of restoration of the ponds of Annville. It was the third camp hosted by the community and the first participation of Armenians and Belarusians. Besides these works, the youth prepared their meal together, shared their everyday life and had an intercultural evening. At the end of the project, the youth prepared postcards on environmental issues and thus declared to protect the environment and keep it as clean as possible.

International project in Swiss

Every year, around 15 young people aged from 18-30 from various European countries and the rest of the world get together with young Swiss people for two weeks to work on a project that culminates in the opening of an Intercultural text images exhibition.
This international project is organised by the “Intercultural Creative Factory Solothurn” (Interkulturellen Kreativwerkstatt Solothurn).
From 26 July to 6 August 2011 the “Intercultural Creative Factory Solothurn” (Interkulturelle Kreativwerkstatt Solothurn) organizes two international exchange projects with 19 young people from various countries. The artists from Armenia, Korea, the Georgian Republic, Germany, Argentina, Israel, Russia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Switzerland have designed text images.

Maria Khublaryan is from Republic of Armenia, she is art-historyien and journalist, and she presented Armenian language, Armenian letters and Armenian alphabet. For 11 days the participants painted by oil on canvas and created other interesting works each about him-national letters by differant shrifts. The last day of the project in the center of Solothurn was organized an exhibition where all works showed to people. They could buy each works.

Art Workshop

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

On June 13th AIYO organized a 2-day art workshop to provide an opportunity for Armenian young artists to get together and work as a team to encourage and promote volunteerism. The participants of the workshop painted colorful pictures on the walls outside our office thus beautifying the surroundings. They also printed AIYO’s logo and website address on the wall to let people know about its activities.

Among the volunteers were Aghunik Ghazaryan, Lilit Stepanyan (students at the Academy of Fine Arts), Marine Nikoghosyan (graduate from the Panos Terlemezyan State College of Fine Arts), Sergey Ghazaryan (pupil), Arthur Movsesyan (project coordinator), Vanuhy Ohanyan, Liana Dallaqyan, Arshak Movsisyan (president of AIYO and photographer) and Movses (our little participant).

The volunteers said they were inspired by the ideas and enthusiasm of the passersby and enjoyed working together on making the surroundings clean and attractive.

In future, we plan to organize other workshops like this and are open for partnerships with corporate and community sponsors.

Check back soon for dates and details of our next workshop. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.