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This year, the SunChild 7th International Environmental Festival has moved from cinema halls to a wider variety of venues. The aim of this change is to make the events more accessible to the wider public and various target groups, VivaCell-MTS reports in a press release.

“One of the most important features of the festival is the voicing of the environmental problems. Those issues have stopped being ‘global’ and become very personal. Many people, especially in our society, have a habit of disregarding current environmental problems, which do not harm them at the very time and place. Unfortunately, many people do not comprehend that all the natural disasters which we learn about in the news every day are the direct and collective result of their micro-actions. The festival is a tool used to communicate through heart-touching film language, an emotional prism of arts which makes environmental problems more apparent for people, making them think and act,” said the founder of the festival Ruben Khachatryan.

“This year the festival received a record number of 1,214 environmental films from which the committee selected 83 to screen. The topics of the festival range from climate change and GMO to plastic revolution, both well-known and unbelievable environmental issues. The message of these films is essentially to wake up people to change their irresponsible and negligent lifestyle leading to disastrous consequences. The workshops aim to change such behavior on a practical level. We do appreciate the participation of the young generation. We coined out a special program solely for them. Our belief is that the young with their awareness, flexibility, and courage will guarantee a better future,” said Eva Martirosyan the director of the festival and the deputy director of the FPWC.

“It is not a secret that the conservation of nature and respectful, civilized treatment towards the environment is not only the responsibility of the government. The scope of global and local problems has increased in such a way, that every person should comprehend their role both in the enhancement and tackling of those problems. In this sense the eco education strategy developed by the ministry, which will be ready till the end of this year, has a very important role. Such festivals and events create opportunities to solve the issues by informal tools,” said Khachik Hakobyan, the Deputy Minister of Nature Protection.

“Armenia is known to the world as a cradle of human civilization and hotspot of biodiversity. The work FPWC is doing in Armenia is very important. The Global Eco-village Network (GEN) reaches out to ten thousand communities around the world in different continents and there is an emerging network across this region. I can see that Armenia can become a leading example within Europe to work with Eco-Village development program for the protection of nature, protecting communities that protect their environments”, said Kosha Joubert, the CEO of the GEN.

The official opening ceremony of the 7th annual SunChild International Environmental Festival will be held today (October 13) at 19:00 in Boghossian Gardens/ Lovers` Park.

The opening movie of the festival is the award–winning production Before the Flood by Fisher Stevens and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The General Partner of the FPWC and SunChild 7th International Environmental Festival is VivaCell-MTS.

The complete program and the updated festival news are available at festival.fpwc.org.