Photo: © 2014, Peace Dialogue, Armine Zakaryan, “Project-planning Workshops”
The Women’s Peace Agency (WPA) team from Peace Dialogue NGO held a series of project-planning workshops in Yerevan and Vanadzor, Armenia. Forty-five participants representing women and women’s groups active in Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, Akori, Archis, Ayrum, Stepanavan and Spitak attended the meetings. Additional workshops will be held in the coming months in other cities like Ijevan or Stepanakert. These workshops are organised by Peace Dialogue NGO (PD) with the support from the Finish organisation Crisis Management Initiative (CMI).
Based on the information they shared and the results of discussions during these preparatory meetings, project partners will establish in 2015 a core group of activists dedicated to working with women all across the South Caucasus. The focus will be on dealing with the past and with conflict related collective and individual trauma.
The goal of this grassroots component of the “Women’s Peace Agency” project will be to create safe spaces for empowerment and exchange of ideas for a cross section of women affected by the ongoing conflicts in the South Caucasus. According to PD representative Armine Zakarayan, the ultimate goal of the project team will be to form a multi-layered dialogue between conflict-affected women’s groups, civil society activists and national and international policy makers while allowing the possibility for women at the grassroots level to engage more actively and substantially in the ongoing peace processes in the region.
The project has at its core the value of local ownership and will advance according to the interests of the women involved, be they the mothers, widows or sisters of soldiers, active and interested community activists or just women who have a desire to come together and form a more defined and cross border reaction to the conflict and its effect on their families, communities and societies.
The project “WOMEN’S PEACE AGENCY” is implemented with the support from the Finish organisation Crisis Management Initiative (CMI).
