Migration from city to village 19 March 2020 By Nane Vardanyan Photos by Knar Babayan 4 min read Roosters’ “Cuckodoodle doo!” in the morning, fresh air, and the sound of silence – a few luxuries of Armenian village life, yet unfamiliar to many urban citizens. People living most of their lives in the country might not…
Life formula of 10 COAF women 12 March 2020 By Nane Vardanyan 4 min read At COAF, 69% of our staff members and 44% of the leadership team are women. The worthwhile input they have in strengthening our mission, in our daily operations, and the feminine touch in working with children and their environment has…
Valerik 1*. Taron Marukyan 27 February 2020 By Knar Babayan, Photos by: Knar Babayan 4 min read Botaas (boot), Gizmon, Rayno, Serik (greyish), Reejeek (redhead), Zerteek (trinket)- these are a few names of COAF SMART Drawing Instructor Taron Marukyan’s cats. He has nine of them, and none of their names is chosen by chance. The…
From Boston to Yerevan: the road leading back home 9 February 2020 By Nane Vardanyan, Photos: from personal archive 3 min read Hi, I am Nane, a new COAF family member. Though we haven’t met yet, I have been working behind the scenes of COAF’s content creation on our blog and social media since 2020.…
The theater girl dreaming of a time machine 20 December 2019 By Tatevik Oganessian, Photos by: Knar Babayan 2 min read Meet Lilit Madatyan, 15, from Sarnaghbyur. She hardly knew anything about theatrical art before joining the COAF project My Theater in Sarnaghbyur. “I, technically, knew nothing about that area,” she admits. “Theater is very similar…
The Roads Leading to Ararat and Island Peak 24 June 2019 By Tatevik Oganessian, Photos by: Lumen 2 min read “Why do people climb mountains, after all? Why do they risk their lives?” a COAF SMART Center student asked Gevorg Gasparyan, a mountaineer and a hiking expert. Two months earlier Gevorg had climbed the Island…
A young physician helping rural children 3 May 2019 By Tatevik Oganessian, Photos by: Knar Babayan 3 min read Lernik Ohanjanian is a physician and scientist, specializing in kidney cancer immunotherapy and targeted therapy. She was born in Tehran, Iran, went to high school there, and then her family moved to Yerevan, Armenia, where she…
Three passions of Houry Gebeshian 1 May 2019 By Tatevik Oganessian, Photos by: Knar Babayan 3 min read Twelve-year-old Grigor Arsenyan is a COAF SMART Center student from Vahagni community. Last weekend Grigor and dozens of other children from nearby communities arrived at the SMART Center to meet Houry Gebeshian, a famous Armenian-American gymnast. The…
No longer a tourist in my own country 29 January 2019 By Tatevik Oganessian, Photos by Knar Babayan 2 min read Coming to Armenia wasn’t something new to me. I usually visited in the summers, lived as a tourist for a few weeks in my motherland, and went back to Lebanon. This year, I no…
One dedicated man changes the lives of many 12 January 2019 By Dzovag Soghomonyan 2 min read In a place where opportunities are scarce, a young and ambitious man came up with an idea to broaden the horizons of children living in the village of Dalarik. Janik Tonoyan, a 26-year-old physical education teacher at the…
