French Ambassador’s visit to Child Friendly Space in Hrazdan.

On the 5^th of April 2022, Action Against Hunger was honoured to host the French Ambassador to Armenia, H.E. Ms. Anne Louyot, on a visit to a Child Friendly Space (CFS) in Hrazdan, Kotayk province.

This space is part of the established Multi-functional Centre run by Mission Armenia, under the programme “Ensuring access to essential protection services for displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh in Armenia” funded by EU Humanitarian Aid and implemented by Action Against Hunger, HALO Trust, Partnership & Teaching and Mission Armenia.

Ambassador Louyot with a child attending sessions at the Multi-functional Centre.

Ambassador Louyot, accompanied by Maria Poghosyan, AAH Programme Manager, visiting one of the recreational art sessions offered to the children.

This Multi-functional Centre is one of ten across Armenia that support children and caregivers in a safe environment. They provide services in child development, social work, psychological care, special services, and explosive ordnance risk education and awareness raising. This includes activities related to non-formal education, child protection; recreational, out of school activities; mental health and psychosocial support; legal assistance; positive parenting classes for caregivers; English language and computer classes; specialized services for children with special educational needs; and Explosive Ordnance Risk Education.

This project and its partnership have allowed for the development of a holistic support system, through multi-stakeholder cooperation between state and non-state actors. This has allowed Action Against Hunger and its partners to produce a detailed community resource map and stakeholder catalogue.
Action Against Hunger Head of Base for Armenia, Grigori Hovhannisyan, stressed the importance of this strong and effective cooperation and referral scheme, without which the impact of the project would be inefficient and incomplete. This referral system is based on an individual needs assessment conducted by the partners and state actors. This means that individuals will receive tailored, holistic, and multifaceted support at the community-level.

From Left to right: H.E. Anne Louyot French Ambassador to Armenia, Lucie Adamski, Attaché on Decentralized Cooperation and Civil Society at the Embassy of France in Armenia, Alla Harutyunyan, Deputy President at MA NGO, Maria Poghosyan, AAH Programme Manager, Grigori Hovhannisyan, Head of Base for Armenia.

Ambassador Louyot visited the Mission Armenia CFS facilitators and field staff, escorted by Grigori Hovhannisyan, Head of Base for Armenia, and Maria Poghosyan, Action Against Hunger Programme Manager. They were accompanied by Mission Armenia’s Deputy President, Alla Harutyunyan, and Programme Manager, Araks Sultanyan.

Children drawing in the recreational art sessions

Within the Hrazdan Multi-functional Centre there is also a Breastfeeding Corner, that was supported by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs’ Crisis and Support Centre in a previous project implemented by Action Against Hunger. The Breastfeeding Corner continues to provide services to pregnant and lactating women and Ambassador Louyot has long shown an interest in visiting the centre to see the assistance provided there and meet with the beneficiaries.

Ambassador Louyot, and Grigori Hovhannisyan, AAH Head of Base, visiting the group culinary session.

She was able to observe group sessions taking place for children and their caregivers which included an informal education session on Explosive Ordnance Risk Education, an art-corner – where the children gifted the Ambassador with an Easter bunny - and combined English & computer classes, specialised individual counselling sessions related to behavioural psychology, and on-site cooking lessons – aimed at teaching children how to prepare healthy and tasty meals.

Ambassador Louyot receiving an Easter bunny from the children.

The Ambassador took time to discuss with the Action Against Hunger and Mission Armenia teams, about the situation that displaced people, and the vulnerable host communities, are facing in Armenia. They also discussed future activities that Action Against Hunger will implement, in this and future projects.

The team behind the Multi-functional Centre in Hrazdan