2nd Results Oriented Monitoring of the SOS Culture Project

On February 4th-8th 2013 monitoring of the EU funded SOS Culture project took place at the project office in Yerevan and in the SOS Culture Youth Clubs in Berdavan, Varagavan, Akhtala and Alaverdi, which were established within the project. The main objective of the Monitoring Visit was to gather result-oriented information on the project in the field and to report on progress and make recommendations in order to improve implementation. The Consortium led by IBM Belgium is charged by the European Commission Services with the Results Oriented Monitoring system of the Implementation of Projects and the Programmes of external aid financed by the European Union (European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). Ms. Nato Kirvalidze who was the monitor, visited the projects Yerevan office where she met the Project Contractor and FPWC founder, Project Manager and other SOS Culture team members. Ms. Kirvalidze also met an Armenian project partner Mr. Samvel Karapetyan who is the head of Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA) Foundation. RAA supports the project with research and creation of a monuments database. After fruitful meetings with SOS Culture team and RAA several visits to youth clubs were organized. The two day trip to the Armenian regions was very interesting and informative. The first day of the monitoring visit was in the Tavush region where Varagavan and Berdavan SOS Culture youth clubs are located. The second day we covered the Lori region and youth clubs in Akhtala and Alaverdi. The monitor could meet youth club members, local coordinators, school directors and be present during short discussion withyouth club members. The aim of the discussion was film-making activities and gathering ideas for the short documental films that are going to be made by young people within the project. Young club members had many interesting ideas on their future films, such as culture vs. industrial development, preservation of endangered cultural assets, environmental issues and cultural assets, sustainable community development and tourism. Currently they are working on topics and doing research in order to have rich and complete information for the scripts. The short documentary films will be used as advocacy tools for raising awareness about cultural and environmental issues.

From 15^th -17^th of February the second part of the monitoring visit will take place in Georgia at the dvv international office in Tbilisi.  dvv international  is another SOS Culture project partner, who carry on the same activities in the Georgian border region. Meetings are scheduled with the project staff, youth club coordinators and youth club members in Koda, Dmanisi, Bolsini and Shaumiani.