Situated at the edge of Lori gorge, and surrounded by boundless fields where horses run freely, is the village of Dsegh. Welcome to the hometown of Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan.
The village and the stone statues of the heroes of Tumanyan’s fairy tales welcome all visitors. They remind us of all of Tumanyan’s lines that we know by heart from school.
Classes are over and exams have been passed. It’s the right time to put on the yellow shirt and select the 2022 SMART Summer Programs function.
And this is how 360 children aged 12-18 from 28 communities of the Lori region created out-of-this-world projects and products within the framework of the 18 after-school programs offered at the COAF SMART Center in Lori.
If wherever you look, there is a mountain, then you can rest assured that you’re in Margahovit village of the Lori region. The mountains are so close here that it seems as if you could stretch out your hand and make a snowball out of the snow covering the mountain peaks. And if you go down the slope with a slide, you will find yourself at the foot of the mountain, embraced by spring.
If you ask 17-year-old Asatur from the city of Tumanyan to describe his life in two words, he will do it in three: Rubik’s Cube, cinema, and video editing.
But his interests extend far beyond these hobbies. So far, he has managed to complete 6 SMART programs (Programming, English classes, Performing Arts, Finance, Digital Drawing, and Mechanics). He only regrets that he will no longer be able to participate in the Sound Design program.
Her day starts and ends with painting, and her favorite “motives” are birds. Mariam Sargsyan, a 17-year-old COAF beneficiary from Arevatsag village, has decided to become an artist.
Until recently, she managed to attend a Wikipedia club and Robotics in parallel to drawing, participating in COAF’s Aflatoun and English Access programs. As soon as the SMART Center opened its doors, she became one of the first students to attend.
– Did you place Gago somewhere comfortable? So jump on stage…
– Gago is already sitting, so you can start painting…
This is how the Drawing and Drama Therapy programs of 11-year-old Mane from Lernagog start.
Gago is a doll who has been Mane’s inseparable friend for more than ten years. Children and instructors managed to adapt to Gago’s presence.
In the evening, when the entire Barseghyan family gathers, the carpet of the living room turns into a tatami, where sister and brother try new judo tricks. The best performer is testing her strength with her father.
10-year-old Syuzanna learned about judo from TV. At the first opportunity, she and her 9-year-old brother, Ashot, registered for the COAF Judo Program.
It’s hard to imagine and meet these two separately. They only study in different classes at school, then spend the rest of the day together. They study together, ride a self-propelled scooter or roller skate and play with newborn puppies. They both have a “disarming” smile and don’t need a special occasion to paint.
It has been a year since the village of Debet in the Lori region passed from “toward the good” to “toward SMART”. The village, buried in the green from head to toe, has a modern Municipality building, street lighting, a bus stop, a library, and soon a beauty salon, boulangerie, a modern school, a kindergarten, and other businesses and infrastructure.
The older one is engaged in tailoring and dreams of becoming a programmer-chemist, while the younger one is engaged in crocheting and dreams of becoming an artist-tailor. The Poghosyan sisters are united by tennis, love of South Korean contemporary music, and engineering.
Endless plains and mountains reaching to the clouds, and ravines hanging from the fields, through which Dzoraget flows. This year-round panorama can be viewed from the balcony of almost every house in Dzoragyugh.
“Oh, wow” is probably the best expression in the Lori dialect to convey the region’s landscape in all its beauty.
When Kickboxing classes in Arteni were discontinued due to the epidemic and then moved to another community, Zohrab was most sad.
The 12-year-old Zohrab Nikolyan has been involved in professional kickboxing for three years, taking top positions in pan-Armenian and international tournaments.
Add Impact To Your Inbox
