Academy for Educational Development

Camps Spark Leadership for Armenian Youth

A week of summer camp in the foothills of South Caucasus Mountains is turning into long-term leadership commitment for Armenian youth.

In a cooperative effort with the Peace Corps, the Academy for Educational Development guided 87 young women through a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) leadership development camp in the summer of 2003. The camp was so successful that New Generation, an Armenian NGO, joined AED and the Peace Corps to launch Boys Reading Out (BRO), a similar camps for 25 young Armenian men. 

Both the GLOW and BRO camps used interactive games, role-playing and discussions to encourage participants to build leadership skills; set goals; and taking a more active role in their education, health care decisions and communities. More traditional camp activities "art classes, hiking and team sports" gave participants a chance to express themselves.

The youth took the lessons to heart and back to their communities.

In Alaveri, former GLOW participants cooperated with young lawyers to help set up a law firm to provide legal consulting services to underserved populations while in Noyemberyan, former GLOW participants have been working with Medicins Sans Frontiers to educate people on women and girl's health issues. In Vanadzor, young women from GLOW organize seminars on effective leadership, communication and conflict management at the School of Young Journalists and Advocates.

Thirteen boys from Gyumri who participated in BRO have become regular visitors and activists with New Generation.  Through a U.S. AID-funded program known as "Dasusuyts," they  act as trainers and mentors for "difficult" and socially neglected boys, teaching them responsibility, social service, respect, work ethics and importance of attending school. 

AED and the Peace Corps hope to broaden the GLOW and BRO program to include youth from all regions of Armenia in 2004.