15 teens from borderland Berd attend Tumo Dilijan

#Tumo

Fifteen teens from the border region of Berd will be provided with transportation to attend Tumo Dilijan educational program for a year.

The initiative was realized owing to fundraising efforts of Timothy Straight, the founder of Homeland Development Initiative Foundation (HDIF), and Anahit Badalian, President of the Berd Women’s Resource Center.

“The fundraising goal was reached in less than a week, but they’re forging ahead to collect enough to send even more teens to the center every week. Besides, any additional money will help students from distant regions attend one of the four centers,” the announcement reads.

To support this initiative, please visit here.

The teens come to TUMO every Sunday to take part in Tumo activities. A special workshop was organized for the students, and they’re well on their way to learning the foundations of graphic design.

“Berd is far away from the capital. It is an isolated region and shares one of the longest borders with Azerbaijan. It’s very important to develop the minds of the local teens to prepare them for their future. The students here are always looking for more projects to stimulate and challenge them. So naturally we could not but find a way to get them to Tumo,” Anahit Badalian said.

“We’re, of course, very happy that teens from Berd are coming to Tumo, but we also see this as the impetus for us to find a way of getting more teens to the center. This has already got us thinking about the next step!” Tumo CEO Marie Lou Papazian said.

“I never thought before that I could make a career in graphic design, but after these classes I became more interested and think now that I’ll pursue it in the future,” noted 15-year-old Levon Melikyan, one of the Berd teens.