Day 4 - Khor Virap and more time at Norogi Resource center

We headed back to Yerevan after spending the night in Vayk.  We stopped at Khor Virap, which is where Gregroy healed King Tiridates and Christianity was proclaimed the state religion in 301 B.C.
Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity, which is Armenian Apostolic.

Khor Virap is located just around 100 meters (330ft) from the closed border with Turkey, and also has one of the best views of Mount Ararat.

After spending about an hour at Khor Virap, we continued on to Yerevan, where we would continue our work on painting trays and children's chairs to be offered for sale at the Resoure center.

 

 

Tomorrow we are heading north to Spitak to see the work the Habitat Armenia has been doing in the area.  Spitak was completely devastated in an earthquake in 1988.  Approximately 25,000 people lost their lives with an additional 150,000+ injured, in the area the earthquake occurred.  Spitak is said to have lost around 1/3 of their population.  The soviet response to rebuilding the area was to bring in shipping containers as temporary housing for the town's residents.  30 years later, people are still living in this temporary housing, as the Soviet union collapsed before the town of Spitak could be completed.  We will also be visiting another social enterprise in a nearby town of Vanadzor.

Day 3 - Norovank monastary, Vayk and Tatev monastary

Today, we went headed south to the Norovank monastery. It is located 122 km south of Yerevan.  It was first built in the 1300's and houses 3 separate churches.

After visiting Norvank, we continued south to Vayk to see examples of previous work done by Habitat Armenia.  As of 2016 census, Vayk houses about 5,000 residents.  We first stopped at a complex of 5 buildings that had their front doors replaced, new windows for the common areas, and work done to repair the roof.

The main goal of the project was to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020.  Habitat Armenia performed energy audits on the buildings and found that most buildings were heated by central heating, so the change was made to individual heating per flat, which helps immediately save both energy and carbon dioxide production.  With the new insulated front door and double glazed windows in the common areas, the flats are able to keep warmer in the winter by at least 2 degrees Celsius.

We then headed over to the Cultural Center, which houses 2 theaters, a table tennis area and a library.  The initial project called for the replacement of all the windows, which was found to be excessive due to an under utilization of the facility.  

Top windows replaced.

Habitat Armenia reassessed the need and found that the library and reading rooms were the only facilities being used on a consistent basis.  They replaced the windows in those 3 rooms, replaced and insulated the floor, insulated the ceiling and installed new lights.  The building is not heated in the winter, so keeping these 3 most used rooms as warm as possible was a priority.

After this visit, we continued south to the Tatev monastery.  The monastery was built in the 9th century and was demolished multiple times throughout it's history.  The monastery is currently home to the world's longest reversible aerial transport according to the Guinness book of World Records. The cable car route spans 3.5 miles and takes approximately 11-15 minutes to cross, which is great improvement to the 40 minute drive through the Vorotan gorge.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Yerevan to visit the Khor Virap monastery and head back to the Norogi resource center to complete our painting projects.

Day 2, Renovation and Restore

Today we headed out to visit a couple of the completed renovation projects, located just outside of Yerevan.

 This building was built in 1981, is 14 floors high and consists of 52 flats.  It is under the management of Mina, the Homeowners Association (HOA) president.  Mina has been in position for almost 20 years and is in charge of 18 buildings.  This particular building had new double glazed windows placed in the common areas, better lighting in common areas, new front doors and painting in the hallways completed in 2016 with a combination of HOA funds and Habitat loans.

The HOA qualified for Habitat's help through an application process that included proof of ability to repay the loan through a high enough collection of HOA fees.

 The HOA fee is 25 dram per square meter, with an average flat being around 80 square meters.  This is about 3 dollars USD per month.  The project took 2-3 months and the building still needs more work.  The elevator is almost 40 years old and the sewage system is in poor condition.  The projects that were completed were done to increase the safety of the building.  The lack of windows in the common areas meant that rain and snow would enter the building, causing ice to form in the hallways in the winter and the residents to pay more to heat their houses due to exposure to the elements.  The main obstacle that Mina currently faces is that the HOA fees are not high enough to cover the cost of maintenance, and getting those fees raised is very difficult.  The average monthly income in Armenia is 300 USD with almost half of that going to utilities.

The second building we visited is a great example of what the buildings typically look like before a Habitat project.  On the left side, nothing has been done yet due to poor payments of HOA fees,

while directly next door they were able to get multiple renovations completed with HOA fees, Habitat loans and subsidies.
The second half had the common area windows replaced and insulated, front door replaced and some roof work to help with the drainage.  The HOA head from this building stated that when people see the improvements that can come from HOA fees and Subsidy help, people are willing to pay their HOA fees and even agree to an increase to have work done.

After a quick stop to see an overview of what a low income area looks like, we headed over to the Nogori Resource Center, which is a social enterprise that was set up by Habitat Armenia with a grant from the European Union.  It is a mix of a traditional ReStore and a training facility.

The Nogori Resource center  got it's name from a combination of 2 Armenian words that mean "new period".  The Resource center is selling refurbished furniture that was donated by the community. They tear the furniture down to it's bare frame, sand and stain the wood, replace the cushion and springs in chairs and sofas and reupholster with new, fashionable fabrics.  This furniture is then sold to low-middle class people.  Their motto is "2 times the quality for 1/2 the price."  Here are some examples of their amazing work.

 This is a photo of the chair before refurbishing, and the chair now. (Price is in dram, which is aproximately 70 USD.)

After looking over the furniture we went upstairs to the training room to talk to Arthur and Luiza about this new project.  Arthur stated that one of the major hurdles they have to overcome is that the  concept of donating things and buying used items is not really a part of traditional Armenian culture.  They are starting to see a bit of a change with the return of diaspora Armenians returning and effecting the culture. Another major hurdle is that the furniture store across the street is selling lower quality items for 2 times the price, and people would rather go there and finance the poorer quality furniture because they can make low monthly payments instead of paying once for a higher cost/quality item.

Another focus of the Nogori Resource center is to provide training in refurbishing furniture and other restoration based trades.  People can also come here to get information about Habitat Armenia and the projects that are available to be applied for.


We then spent a couple hours painting children's chairs that were donated by a kindergarten and painting trays that were made from recycled laminate.

We will return on Friday to finish our masterpieces.  Tomorrow we are heading south to visit the town of Vayk to see some additional renovation projects, Norovank Monastery and Tatev monastery.