Today we visited three historical projects where Heifer is no longer directly working with the families because the project was completed (and successful!), and also one current project called "Youth Agriculturalists Network of Armenia (YANOA)" in the Nalbandyan, Ararat Valley. As you will see in the photo album above entitled Project Partner Photos, we made some wonderful new friends (bovine and human), ate excellent food (bread, cheese, fruits, milk, yogurt) and saw first hand the impact of one animal on a single family.
Here are some thoughtful reflections from our tour participants:
From Donna Sosnowski:
After meeting beautiful Armenian Project Partners today, I truly see unity and diversity and how we're all world citizens.
From Tom Lyon:
The story of the beginning of Heifer Armenia is classic - marginalized people seeking a better life and willing to work to achieve it. The "tools" are the classic - livestock, dedicated staff and hard work. The emphasis on "active" peacemaking and youth empowerment and education through the YES Youth Clubs has risen to a whole new level of impact here. What a joy to hear these children so full of pride and dreams for the future. Miracles are happening every day in rural Armenia.
Besides Heifer's incredible country staff, there is a network of "volunteers" at all levels - district project leaders, ethno-veterinarians, teachers and peer educators helping each other. If Armenia is typical, we have hundreds of dedicated volunteers in the USA, but the Heifer volunteer network worldwide must number in the tens of thousands, developing social capital of amazing value!
My own tour leader reflection for the day is this: thank goodness for volunteers. It made my heart so warm and proud to watch the excitement on the faces of the Heifer volunteers as they met the Project Partners whose lives had changed because of their efforts back home. They shared smiles, hugs, laughs, food and joy. It was truly a celebration of human perseverance and, as Donna said so eloquently, world citizenship at its finest. Perhaps that 9 am presentation to the local Sunday school class or all weekend booth at the state fair didn't look like such a daunting task knowing it could result in all of this joy. May we all realize the true impact of our actions, both small and large.
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