Warmth for Hope of a New Life
Emergency Humanitarian Campaign Winter 2023 - 2024
Following the forcible displacement of over 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, Oxford Armenia Foundation launched in early October 2023 a crowdfunding campaign to provide heating devices and fuel to 132 families.
We worked effectively with Noyemberyan municipality social services who have identified the households in dire need of heating devices and fuel across their community of villages. To manage the harsh winter of this mountainous region, we mindfully planned our humanitarian support, directing your generous donations toward these 4 installments:
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Oct. 2023: donated 115 heating devices to 132 families across 15 villages.
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Dec.2023: 1st donation of 15 tonnes of briquettes (environmentally friendly heating fuel) to 66 families across 7 villages.
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Dec. 2023: 2nd donation of 15 tonnes of briquettes to another 66 families across 6 other villages of the Noyemberyan municipality.
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Feb. 2024: 3rd donation of an extra 18 tonnes of briquettes to be dispatched amongst 132 families of Noyemberyan community of villages.
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Steppingstones to Reading
A pilot project developing social and literacy skills for preschool children - 2023 - 2024
Oxford Armenia Foundation in partnership with Nor Arar educational NGO based in Vanadzor, joined efforts to design an innovative professional education program for preschool teaching teams. This pilot program aims to develop the social-emotional and literacy skills of preschool children through mindfully designed planning materials integrating a set of 6 storybooks. The project is now being implemented across 3 preschools in the Lori region for 12 weeks. The next phase consists of monitoring and evaluating the early educational program both from the children's development and the teaching staff's perspective.
Together with Nor Arar, we aim to provide nationwide professional education opportunities to empower teachers to better prepare children for their educational journey.
Books for Hope - 2024 - 12 months - 12 school libraries
Our book donation program to rural schools' libraries
The Books for Hope initiative started back in 2018 while trekking the Dilijan National Park and experiencing homestays in villages along the way, we discussed the lack of access to extracurricular books. Since 2018, we regularly purchase in Yerevan, a variety of genres: novels, classics, translations, reference books, and donate them to rural schools across Armenia.
In 2023, we formalised our partnership with Teach for Armenia. Our successful collaboration consists of TfA choosing schools where they place Teacher-Leaders who would draw with their pupils a list of 50 to 70 books that they wish to read. TfA chose 1 school every month totaling 12 schools per year from January to December, Oxford Armenia Foundation purchases the books on the wishlists and donates them to rural schools' libraries.
Gifting books to rural schools makes the teaching staff, the children, and the wider community they live in, empowered to explore new ideas or deepen existing interests. Through years of book donations, we remain astonished by the sheer enthusiasm of young readers when they discover hard copies of books they are longing to read but never had the chance to access.
In Armenia, rural schools are hit by extreme poverty, ongoing border conflicts, and the lack of subject-specific teachers making regular and quality education a daily challenge. In these difficult conditions, it is always heartwarming to experience the excitement of children opening and exploring the variety of new engaging books.
Moreover, Oxford Armenia Foundation is collecting feedback from young readers in the form of book reviews. We are aiming to build a nationwide online book-reviewing system where young readers can share their views and debate ideas.
Our 2024 crowdfunding aims to cover the cost of book procurement for 12 rural school libraries for a yearly total of 600 to 800 books.
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KARDA Program 2024 book donations
Karda develops school children’s literacy and critical thinking skills
Oxford Armenia Foundation remains committed to supporting the KARDA program 2024 by donating enough copies of a selection of books to participating schools. Organised and implemented by our local partner NorArar Education NGO, the well-established KARDA program extends access and quality of foundational reading provision in 12 schools across the Lori region.
In practice, children and their teachers read, review, and discuss books within their year groups. In addition, they prepare a showcase based on the stories they read for the yearly Reading Festival. As children's novels enable pupils to develop better literacy, creativity, and critical thinking skills, we look forward to seeing the children sharing and debating their reading thoughts and experiences.
This year, we hope to donate another selection of books to the KARDA program. With your generous donations, we help build strong literacy skills empowering children to positively impact their surroundings.
Summer Camp 2024 - Art and ICT
Oxford Armenia Foundation has been successfully running this Summer Camp since 2021 in collaboration with Caritas Armenia, ensuring the overall project management. In 2024, we remain committed to providing another Summer Camp experience to a hundred children from disadvantaged villages.
Summer holidays last for 3 long months and there are very few activities on offer. We believe that providing meaningful summer activities has positive impacts on children's social and emotional development.
The various forms of art activities over the 6-week camp including the dancing competition for the 2023 Summer Camp received overall enthusiastic feedback from the participating children. Each child found a preferred creative activity boosting his or her confidence and focus in a playful and empowering manner.
Oxford Armenia Foundation is currently designing the 2024 Summer Camp with Caritas Armenia. We are counting on your financial support to make this year's Summer Camp positively impact more children in need.
