By Gagik Grigoryan | Public Relations Officer
Goris, the second largest city of the Syunik Region, is home to Goris Crochet, one of the artisan groups working with Homeland Development Initiative Foundation (HDIF). Goris Crochet is run by the women of the Goris Women's Development “Resource Centre” Foundation (GWRC). GWRC, founded in June 2009 with the support of the OSCE Office in Yerevan and by a local women’s initiative group, has been collaborating with HDIF since its inception in 2013. Having worked on different handicrafts for years, the women of Goris Crochet began making crochet fruits and vegetables, followed by crocheted animals for HDIF.
Currently, Goris Crochet employs roughly 90 trained active workers of which 55 have no other source of income. The women work on average 8 hours and meet on a weekly basis to present their handiworks to their supervisors to ensure constancy in the quality of the products.
HDIF recently visited GWRC to discuss Goris Crochets participation at this years Sheep Shearing Festival on 6th June at Halidzor. Special sheep themed products to be produced for the festival was discussed including ideas on design & presentation of their stand. Another topic during the discussion was how Goris Crochet has benefited from the various business, marketing and human resource management trainings, as well as business development consultations, which are partially sponsored by Global Giving funds.
GWRC’s Executive Director, Ruzanna Torozyan expressed the importance of the trainings “We have learned how to manage our human resources, as well as use social media to advertise our products and the financial management trainings has helped us to achieve financial stability together with better management skills”. She particularly likes the communal “family environment” created through these HDIF training sessions which allow the opportunity for all HDIF producers to get to know one another to share knowledge, experiences and skills with each other.
Ruzanna continued to say that the business consultations have helped them to understand how to calculate the pricings of the products. These calculations are done “with the producing women directly, so the process is transparent and inspiring”. Ruzanna also appreciates the quality of these consultations. “They helped us to develop our products and make them more competitive in the global market and at the same time motivate the women to come up with new ideas for possible products for the future.”
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