Border to Border Health Education Project Returns to Armenia

From the 3rd to the 24th of June 2017, a new round of the Border to Border Health Education project is scheduled in Armenia. For these three weeks, teams of 18 American Peace Corps Volunteers and 13 Armenian educators will cross the country on foot, providing health education access and information about educational opportunities for rural youth across Armenia. This year, their departure will be attended by the Acting Director of the Peace Corps, Sheila Crowley. This marks the first time leadership of Peace Corps global will see the Border to Border project in action.

Returning for the sixth year with new partners, the Scholae Mundi Armenia Charity Foundation, UWC Dilijan and the Dilijan Community Center, B2B expands its capacity by delivering not only a holistic health education curriculum, but also information about the importance of education and its accessibility to around forty communities across Armenia.

Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, this year’s program will reach more communities and beneficiaries than ever before, while simultaneously transferring responsibilities to a young Armenian management team to take charge in the years ahead. Seeking to surpass last year’s record of over 1,300 students reached by the project, this year projects over 1,500 beneficiaries will participate in the program.

"We all think Armenia is such a homogeneous place that no big differences in communities would be part of the national narrative, whereas when going and actually talking to these people in different villages and cities, it turned out that we live in such a beautifully diverse country full of different traditions and community-specific customs! It was also interesting to learn what the next generation is interested in, and perhaps work on promoting healthy lifestyle, gender equality, leadership and such topics that have not been brought up before," said Nune Harutyunyan, 2016 Armenian walker.

B2B is a partnership project between American Peace Corps Volunteers and young Armenian leaders, all passionate about providing health education and sharing opportunities for international education with rural youth. The unique curriculum is reviewed on an annual basis in response to pre- and post-test results from the previous year, and addresses the expressed needs of community participants. For some students in rural, underserved communities, B2B serves as a first introduction to general nutrition, leadership skills, gender equality, and environmental conservation.

You will be able to follow the B2B team June walk on social media exploring the magnificent Armenian hiking opportunities, promoting healthy lifestyles and travelling to the outlying regions.

Six years ago, a group of Peace Corps Armenia Volunteers saw a need. Members of their communities had no access to educational materials about healthy living and personal development. These subjects weren’t taught in most schools. Online resources weren’t in Armenian, and were therefore inaccessible. Communities, especially villages, lacked the expertise to start programs themselves, and so this dedicated team of Volunteers created Border to Border.

The Dilijan Community Center, which was founded with the support of the Scholae Mundi Armenia Foundation, sees its mission as helping to shape a caring community (both indigenous people and newcomers), ready to unite their efforts to change the prevailing reality.

Scholae Mundi Armenia Foundation is one of the three Charity Foundations (Scholae Mundi Armenia, Scholae Mundi Russia and Scholae Mundi UK) that compound the Scholae Mundi Platform established by entrepreneurs and philanthropists Ruben Vardanyan and Veronika Zonabend.

The mission of Scholae Mundi Armenia Foundation is to diversify the educational scene in Armenia by supporting the socially-oriented innovative projects and initiatives in the areas of education, arts and culture, to promote Armenia internationally and to strengthen the positive impact on the communities locally in Armenia and globally.

Scholae Mundi Platform promotes, on a non-for profit basis, the most advanced educational practices for the public benefit, while catalyzing wider social change, it supports education of students at UWC Dilijan College and other educational establishments by providing funds for capital development and scholarships.