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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has,” this quote by Margaret Mead best describes Zartnir NGO which I have got to know most recently.

Zartnir was a project of young people gathered around the idea of creating reading clubs for school children in Armenia, which is now an NGO.

It was created during the 2016 April War, when the Diaspora was mainly providing financial assistance to Armenia. At the time Areg Abrahamyan, a young student at the University of Berlin, thought: “How to make sure that no country wants to attack us so that we don’t have to buy shoes and weapons? We need a strong state, and it can be built only by educated citizens.”

And the first step to education is reading. Thus, Areg decided to create reading clubs in schools in Armenia’s rural communities. Once the content of the program was ready, it was time to give it a go.

After much thought and discussion, he decided to start a book-based program. On August 24, 2017, Zartnir started its activity. On July 30, 2019, the Zartnir initiative was registered as an educational NGO, continuing its goal of promoting the level of education in Armenia and Artsakh through reading.

Zartnir children not only read, but also travel and acquire new knowledge through new acquaintances.

But what the members of Zartnir are especially happy about are the positive indicators growing day by day. Thus, as Elya Sahakyan, a former Zartnir teacher and team leader in Armenia, told Panorama.am in an interview, 54% of students have improved the level of knowledge they receive from school programs.

"70% of children have developed their basic skills, including oral and written communication skills. 83% of children have improved their academic performance at schools. 97% of the participants have rated their happiness above 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. 92% of non-involved students are interested in Zartnir. 100% of teachers want to continue their participation in the program. 100% of students want to continue taking part in the program. Besides, 9 schools cooperated with us in September 2019, while at the end of the academic their number reached 22. In May 2020, we had one volunteer from Armenia, now there are 24 of them,” she stressed.

Elya says the book readings are necessarily followed by sharp debates to help children understand and empathize the characters. “The differences in opinions help hold interesting discussions. For example, we discuss Hamlet's actions, whether he did the right thing or not, how I would have acted instead of him, what other circumstances were there, what Shakespeare wanted to convey to the readers with this work .... "

The teacher says Zartnir creates a pleasant entertainment for children to stay after school classes and discuss various topics and questions.

“They like that they do it all at the same time with the teacher. While reading the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, the children tried to guess who the mysterious hero was and all it was very cool. After reading ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ I brought so many examples that one day one of the children said: ‘You seem to have liked that book very much, don’t you?’,” she said, adding the children are always looking forward to receiving the new books.

Zartnir student and now also volunteer Diana Ayvazyan says: "When Ms. Elya received the books, we all tried to get our name on the list first, to get our hands on the new book first. We were even upset that the new books had been received, but we had not been told about it yet. We read all the books. Many were chosen according to our taste. Reading a book was like an infection spreading in our school at some point. Our oral and written communication was mostly improved. By the way, there is another pleasant thing. The books are transferred from one province to another. Many times strangers of our age left us letters in the books. We, in turn, put a letter in a book for its next reader before handing it over.”

A methodology for reading has been developed and revised this year by the Zartnir Education group, which includes teachers.

"We value reading, but we also attach great importance to discussions which develop children’s oral speech and communication skills. We give teachers 40 interactive tools, methods, with the help of which the discussions become interesting and effective. By the way, we will start our trainings with teachers from tomorrow. In addition to methodological assistance, we will introduce teachers to online tools. Well, it’s for them to be ready if the classes are held remotely,” Lilit Poghosyan, a volunteer teacher of Zartnir, told us.

Due to the expansion of the team, they have created new groups working in different key areas, including fundraising, grants, law, design, organization of events for children, etc. Recently, the website zartnir.am has been launched, which is very important for its founder Areg Abrahamyan. "I have been dreaming about this website since October. Our source of inspiration was the websites of the best foundations in the world; we spared no effort for a reader to feel comfortable with us and be informed. Due to the website, our work will become more transparent, making it easier to make donations.”

For 3 years now, Zartnir has been trying to awaken the children of Armenia. Asked whether the team has succeeded in that, Areg says. "Even if we do not reach the final goal of building a strong Armenia in that way, we have already achieved many victories, and we can say that the program has succeeded. We already know that we have changed the lives of many children for the better. Now our goal is to achieve this all over Armenia and Artsakh. Of course, there are always people who do not understand what a book has to do with a good life, but we can show them the success of our children and continue our work. In fact, this is a daily job, which, if done well, perfectly, will work wonders. Many people say that this is a romantic, unrealistic idea, but what is life worth living without a big dream? We are often asked what is our interest. Let me say that we have no financial interests, on the contrary, we make investments. The main benefit is to be happy with the results, the idea that your work serves the greater good. Our interest is simply to raise the level of educational in Armenia and Artsakh.”