LOCAL HANDICRAFTS FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Homeland Development Initiative Foundation is very proud that their partner organization Berd Women's Resource Foundation(BWRCF) has taken the initiative to create a special campaign to promote not only the sale of hand-crocheted items, but also guard the health of the women who produce the products.

BWRCF has identified vulnerable women in four communities along the front line in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict that are regularly shot at by snipers and with artillery fire.  These are Berkaber, Nerkin Karmiraghbyur, Aygepar and Movses, in addition to the regional center of Berd. The stress of living in a conflict zone means two important things:

1.  Regular jobs are nearly impossible to come by, and agricultural work in the fields exposes them to sniping.

2.  The stress of living in a conflict zone creates a higher rate of physical illness than in the normal population and medical checks of women's sexual reproductive health are not done due to poverty, innaccesability and tabu.

So BWRCF asked HDIF if we could partner with them to bring not only income but also thyroid, mammography and gynaecological checks to the women in those communities.

Here is a clip created for the campaign:

Hope and Health to the Border

The keytags shown in the film represent the four villages that are the target of the campaign. 

A) Berkaber is a honey producing village, so they have made a beehive key tag.

B) Nerkin Karmiraghbyur is a grape producing village, so they have put a grape leaf on their gingerbread house.

C) Aygepar has what once was the airport for the Berd region(now in direct sniper range), so they have an airplan on the roof of their key tag house.

D) Movses is nestled in the hills above Berd, directly under artillery fire. Their key tag uses the colors of the Armenian flag.

Several hundred of the keytags have already been sold, meaning that:

1.  Over a thousand hours of work has been provided to the women of the four villages and Berd.

2.  Hundreds of women will be screened in Berd for potential thyroid, breast cancer and gynaecological issues.

3.  All those women indentified as at risk after the screening will be offered further tests and follow up in Yerevan.

This is a very promising result so far!

If you would like to support this effort to bring hope and health to the women at the border in Armenia, please make a contribution!  If you would like to order these keytags for your church or organization, please write to info@hdif.org or contact us through Facebook.

We are so thankful for all the support you have given to HDIF and its producer partners!