Armenia: HOPESHINE II

About the local hosting organization

The Voluntary Service of Armenia was founded in 1965. HUJ organizes volunteer exchanges with partner organizations abroad and maintains a database of 3000 registered volunteers as of today. The main activities of HUJ are carried out for and with volunteers, mainly young people and students. The regular activities of the organization include exchanging volunteers with different organizations, opening international workcamps in Armenia, preparing and sending volunteers to trainings, seminars, and work camps abroad, as well as organizing ESC long-term programs. The essential aims of the organization are to raise the social competences and employability of youth by organizing activites for national and foreign volunteers in various programs in Armenia, such as work camps, training courses, and medium- and long-term projects abroad. HUJ also facilitates the participation of local and national volunteers in similar projects abroad. Additionnally, the organization works to support orphans, children with special needs, and socially vulnerable people by proposing actvities for and with them, and by making them more visible to local, national, and international communities. 

Presentation of the programme

The school hosting the project was established in 1939 in Yeveran and is the only one in Armenia where education is organized using the Braille system. Most children live at the school during the school year and return home only for the holidays. The school provides secondary education. Between 2014 and 2025, volunteers have renovated classrooms, halls, benches, painted walls, and improved the school territory. The aim of this work camp is to carry out renovation tasks, including painting classroom walls, as well as maintaining and improving the school territory to enhance the learning environment for the children.In the second half of the day, volunteers will play and organize interactive activities with the children. Volunteers are encouraged to create games and activities, assist the children with learning tasks, and play outdoor games to help develop teamwork and cooperation skills.At the end of the work camp, volunteers and children will organize a final concert-performance.Volunteers will receive certificates at the end of the work camp.

About the accomodation

Do not worry about sleeping bags, as you will stay in cottages of the hosting organizations, where beds, mattresses and bedding packs will be provided.In Armenian work camps, discipline and organization are important. Making beds and keeping rooms neat and clean daily is mandatory.

About the food

Volunteers will prepare food themselves on the principle of duty. You will have the opportunity to taste a variety of traditional Armenian dishes, such as dolma, khorovats (barbecue), kebab, khashlama, as well as the incomparable fruits of the Ararat Valley apricots, grapes, peaches, apples, as well as berries and vegetables.

About the location

Yerevan, Armenia 

About the leisure activities

Armenia is called an open-air museum. You will have many interesting excursions and visits to historical monuments and museums, organized during the work camp.Excursions to the following sites will be arranged at the discretion of the work camp, and all visits will be free of charge. The proposed list of excursions includes: Echmiadzin Mother Cathedral, Zvartnots Cathedral ruins, Garni Pagan Temple, Geghard Monastery Complex (with a World Heritage Initiative program), Lake Sevan (including a barbecue on the beach). Volunteers will also visit Matenadaran repository of ancient manuscripts, History Museum of Armenia or National Gallery of Armenia, museum of the famous film director Sergei Parajanov, and Vernissage, a large open-air Armenian souvenir market.Different games, Armenian dance lessons, and language lessons will also be organized in the work camps. Leisure activities for joint work camps are individual.

Requirements

Volunteers are asked to bring various games, face-paint, or other materials to use when working with children.