VivaCell-MTS supports traditional “Flower Gathering” event

On April 27 the traditional Flower Gathering event took place in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets.

Since 2010 the Flower Gathering has been supported by the FPWC’s General Partner VivaCell-MTS.

The initiative combines the idea of giving these flowers a new lease of life and the environmental mission that promotes recycling. The flowers laid at the Genocide Memorial on April 24 are gathered and their stems are removed from the petals. The petals are used to derive compost, and the stems – to make handmade recycled paper. The compost is used for the treatment of the soil in the Genocide Memorial Park, while the handmade recycled paper is used to make certificates or postcards.

“During the last few years this initiative has become the natural continuation of April 24. The idea of the Flower Gathering has been so consonant with people’s expectations, that it became everyone’s, getting an especially wide response among youth. Flower Gathering is now an integral of the impel that drove tens of thousands to the memorial every year,” FPWC Founder Ruben Khachatryan noted.

“This event symbolizes positive changes, optimism, and revival: flowers brought here a few days ago with a mourning heart will be turned into beautiful handmade cards on which words of gratitude will be written; the other part of the recycled flowers will become compost to cultivate the soil where new trees will grow. It is important to remember the past, but it is just as important to look forward and create new values, become even stronger and have a more conscious attitude towards ourselves and the environment,” said VivaCell-MTS General Manager Ralph Yirikian.

The event was attended by hundreds of representatives of non-governmental and international organizations, private and public sector representatives, schoolchildren and students, ambassadors and officials.