Armenia: Much more than loans
When Aida Movsisyan and her family came to live the village of Ardjut in 1992, the village helped her family to build a house, acquire land and begin agricultural activities. Many years ago, Mrs Movsisyan adopted and raised two children whose mother had died when they were still very small. One of these children is Arshak Srapyan. Today, he is a member of the Luys Solidarity Group, which is a client of Armenian ECLOF in Ardjut.
The group consists of 13 members who jointly received a loan for the equivalent of US$3,400. With this sum, they were able to develop cattle-breeding activities and see their farms grow. The Luys Solidarity Group says that ECLOF was the first organization to help them to improve their living conditions by giving them the loans necessary to keep and develop their farms. They have now regained hope for a much brighter future.
The Arghasar-1 solidarity group in the town of Stepanavan are collectively responsible for their loans and repayment. They believe this is a good system because it is almost impossible for individuals who are poor to manage these things on their own.
Eight young men make up the Arghasar-1 group. Previously, they were all unemployed, could not see any future in Armenia, and were considering emigrating. They approached several Armenian microfinance institutes but their interest rates were too high and in any case, they were told that they were not eligible for loans. This is when they turned to ECLOF. With ECLOF, they found a different approach and felt treated with respect and dignity. ECLOF showed the men how to form a solidarity group, what to use as collateral, and how to complete a project proposal to see if their ideas were realistic and sustainable.
The Arghasar-1 group has now been granted a second ECLOF loan. The group's main activity is meat production but they have recently begun bee keeping and now have around 20 hives. The sale of honey will add substantially to their overall income.
In Armenia, unemployment is high and many young men remain unemployed after their military service. However, the members of these solidarity groups have found that with hard work, and supported by an ECLOF loan, it is possible to make a decent living.
