AEN is attempting to create something heretofore unseen, and unknown, in Armenia. Our focus for 2012 is waste management and, as such, we have come up with a project design to address this issue. As discussed in previous entries, Armenia is facing a serious waste crisis. Armenia currently has over 400 rural dumps, none of which are constructed in a sanitary and environmentally safe fashion. This fact bears repeating. Armenia does not have, to our knowledge, a single sanitary landfill. In addition, trash piles line the road ways and clog the rivers and streams. Animals and birds scavenge the piles and dumps and spread germs and disease. And, it is just ugly, plain and simple. The challenge is to create a solution to the increasing problem of waste disposal that is both affordable and sustainable. Rural villages have very little money and traditional, “Western” approaches are prohibitively expensive. AEN believes it has a solution. We call it an integrated waste management program, or IWMP for short. The solution is unique because it is designed specifically for implementation in rural areas where resources and money are in short supply. This solution requires a ...
To start, let me introduce myself: my name is Lilit, and I am a high school senior from the United States who has come to Yerevan to study and experience a general change of environment. One of the main goals of my stay here in Armenia is to spend my time doing something meaningful and worthwhile. For this reason, I decided to volunteer for the Armenian Environmental Network and started work last week. During this short period of time, I have already learned a tremendous amount about the environment, and have been exposed to issues here in a way which I never expected. I am really looking forward to the coming months, and hope that my work here will be a significant contribution to AEN’s objectives. If you wish to get to know me a bit better, you are welcome to read this short piece which I wrote for my own personal blog about Armenia. Nice to meet you! The first morning in Yerevan, I went with my father to visit my grandparents who also live in the city. The moment I stepped out onto the street, I realized how much I had missed this place. It was Saturday, so the ...
This is Shamshadin and this is just one of the reasons why we at AEN, and other dedicated NGO's, struggle on. Merry "American" Christmas. These were all taken in or around the village of Chinchin. The pictures were taken at a little church called Mayrivank, just outside of Berd. The church itself was rehabilitated by our friends Matt and Annie Ash. The donkey was politely asking me to stop stepping on his dinner. And these pictures were taken on the road from Berd to Tchambarak.