5 Armenian NGOs to receive $40,000 in grants from WB & Soros Foundat

5 ARMENIAN NGO TO RECEIVE $40,000 IN GRANTS FROM WORLD BANK AND SOROS FOUNDATION

ArmenPress
May 12 2004

YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS: Five Armenian non-governmental
organizations will receive a total of $40,000 in grants from the World
Bank and the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) in 2004 as
part of World Bank’s Small Grants Program. The relevant agreements
were signed today. The program was started six years ago and two
years ago the Soros Foundation joined it.

Naira Melkumian, a senior official of the World Bank Yerevan office,
said the main goal of the program is to help resolve the most pressing
problems of the vulnerable segment of the population “or at least to
outline ways for their resolution.”

Larisa Alaverdian from the Armenian branch of the Soros Foundation,
said the five organizations were selected from a pool of 115
applicants. She said the Bank and the Foundation will continue to
support the implementation of the program.

One of the organizations, Atur, of Assyrians, living in Armenia,
will use the grant for publication of 2,000 copies of a book in
their mother tongue. The other organization, called Millennium, will
publish a book of seven successful stories of Armenian refugees from
Azerbaijan who settled in Armenia’s rural regions. The stories then
will be used for shooting a documentary.