Road Trips!

On September 12th, Tim, Lucy, and Lilit made a road trip to Vazashen, a community in Tavush that is constantly under fire from Azerbajian.  They visited Mariam Sarhatyan, a young woman who is empowering members of her community to create beautiful, handmade crochetedproducts.They make the vine leaf coasters & grape wine bottle ornaments. The group discussed quality, production capacity, the disadvantages they face, and ideas for new products. The trip included a visit with Anahit Badalyan and the Berd Women's Resource Center, where Berd bears, mini animals, animal finger puppets, and pencil tops are made.  

On September 22nd, Tim, Lucy, Ani & Viken visited Spitak, Vanadzor, and Margahovit. In Spitak, they spoke with Gayane (of BeeArt) about new products like small souvenir-sized clay pots of locally produced honey, soon to be available at Parpetsi 13. They continued to Vanadzor to meet Anush Aslanyan who heads EREO (Equal Rights Equal Opportunities). The group discussed new products, including herbal tea packaged in traditional fabric. Lucy met with Hovhannes who will be painting new Armenian letter key tags and magnets. A portion of the day was spent with Anush visiting possible sites for relocating EREO. Later in the afternoon, the journey continued to Margahovit to meet Samvel (see below) who produces HDIF's popular Ararat puzzle.