PRESS RELEASE
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF)
Inessa Grigoryan, PR & Communications Manager
1 Northern Avenue, 8th floor, Suite 24
Yerevan, 0001, Republic of Armenia
Email: [email protected]
Tel: (+374 10) 53 34 12, 50 20 76
Fax: (+374 10) 50 20 76
Web:
December 26, 2014, Yerevan, Armenia
Youth of Dsegh Community Provided with New Educational Opportunities
Thanks to VivaCell-MTS and COAF
VivaCell-MTS and the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF)’s continuous
collaboration resulted in the opening of the sixth Creativity
Lab. Equipped with a smart board, modern computers, as well as special
mobile furniture, the newly opened Creativity Lab will host students
from the Dsegh Community School in Lori Marz of Armenia.
The Creativity Lab will help not only those students who are eager to
learn, but also all the teachers who wish to integrate the use of
technologies into the teaching process and make it more interesting
and content-rich. The peculiarities of these innovative classrooms
include powerful technological capacity, as well as availability of
special mobile furniture. The latter allows for the implementation of
individual work, work in pairs and in groups.
The partnering organizations are hopeful that provision of new
opportunities to the village schools will encourage creativity, lead
to the revelation of students’ talents and development of their
skills. It is crucial that up-to-date tools for encouraging creativity
are equally accessible to both urban and rural youth. The program that
was implemented throughout 2013-2014, has already been beneficial to
the schoolchildren from Sardarapat, Vanand, Hatsik communities of
Armavir Marz, Arteni community of Aragatsotn Marz and Tumanyan
community of Lori Marz.
“Education has an important place for any country striving for
development. Acquisition of knowledge, though, is not enough for
success. One should have the ability to make good use of the acquired
information, the skill to identify the theoretical knowledge in
practice and flexibility in decision-making. The knowledge acquired
during school years becomes more useful when the student can reason
logically and show a creative approach. I think that such creativity
labs will functionally serve to this end,” VivaCell-MTS General
Manager Ralph Yirikian commented.
Anoush Yedigaryan, COAF Executive Director, attaches great importance
to the development of technologies in rural educational
facilities. “COAF’s development philosophy is based on the belief that
rural communities are vital for boosting economies and ensuring
sustainable development in the country, and for raising the level of
education. The projects implemented jointly with our reliable partner
VivaCell-MTS will allow us to improve the accessibility of information
with the application of technologies, develop innovation and
creativity”.
The Dsegh School, accommodating 245 students, is an educational
facility following good traditions. It is home to numerous talented
students who are participants and winners of various contests and
festivals. In addition to the major foreign language taught in the
school, there is also an English Language Club, functioning as part of
the school’s afterschool activities. The newly opened Creativity Lab
will enhance and develop the skills of Dsegh students, will improve
the level of their informational and communication literacy, and
encourage the application of technologies in learning and teaching
practices.
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About COAF
The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) is a non-profit, non-governmental
organization that uses community-led approaches to reduce rural
poverty, with a particular focus on children. Since the inception of
its programs in 2004, COAF has funded and implemented education,
health, social, and economic development programs serving more than
27,000 people in rural villages of Armenia. Each person impacted
represents one of the more than one billion people living in poverty,
and the methods used in Armenia can be replicated in other
communities, where children are most vulnerable. Please see more at
About VivaCell-MTS
VivaCell-MTS (K-Telecom CJSC) is Armenia’s leading mobile operator,
having the widest 2G/3.75G/4G network reach and spreading a wide range
of Voice and Data services all across Armenia. Having the best of the
Armenian people interest at heart since its launch on 1st July 2005
and in a short period of time VivaCell-MTS has managed to build a
nationwide network and a considerable customer base. VivaCell-MTS
drives innovation and aims at always being at the forefront of any
development serving the Armenian mobile communications market. For
more information, visit
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (“MTS”) is the leading telecommunications
group in Russia and the CIS, offering mobile and fixed voice,
broadband, pay TV as well as content and entertainment services in one
of the world’s fastest growing regions. Including its subsidiaries,
the Group services over 100 million mobile subscribers. The Group has
been awarded GSM licenses in Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Armenia
and Belarus, a region that boasts a total population of more than 200
million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the
New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT). Additional information
about the MTS Group can be found at