Georgia and Armenia with HERA, August 2021

 After a nice breakfast, Dennis picked Nico and me up at the hotel and we headed north towards a small town called Koghd where HERA had made some grants. Lynel and Dennis wanted to follow up on a grant made to a hairdresser and nail salon and also visit the local art center. It was about a 3-hour drive up the m4. Most of the route was flat, but a long stretch was up and down some serious mountains along the border with Azerbaijan. As a matter of fact, the border between the two countries is again a spaghetti-like line with the result that at times the road actually took us into Azerbaijan territory.  As the war between Azerbaijan and Armenia is still hot in some areas, we all fell pretty quiet while Lynel negotiated the hairpin turns up and down the mountains. We saw no military on the whole length but there are reports of sporadic shooting across the border. It is beautiful scenery but we all were very relieved to arrive at the small Armenian town of Koghd,an hour from Georgi...

 This morning we left Jerevan around 0930 and headed north towards Dilijian, about 100 kms.  We stopped into a village near Azarkan to visit a small milk project run by an Armenian family who had bought a state farm from the Soviet period. It was a run-down facility with no hygiene. We visited the site but told the owners that we could not support them until they improved their hygiene. We then went on to  Hrazdan and visited a lady who runs a small textile facility. She had some 25 machines but because of Covit and the war, she had very few orders. Therefore her workers had been reduced from 20 to only 12. She wanted a label and letter printer for her clothes. Lynel let her know that until she can re-employ younger staff, HERA could not provide a second grant. She suggested the lady re-apply next year. We then drove north past lake Sevan which is a huge lake at 1900 meters altitude. The lake represents 1/6 of the territory of Armenia and is beautiful. It is the main vaca...

August 25th Video making lady   Today started with the visit of our video lady who had purchased her handheld camera holder. We had asked her to purchase her holder and to bring it to our hotel to show us so we could give her what she had paid. She arrived on time and full of smiles. She had not even opened the box yet so she proudly did so in front of us. The smile on her face was a great thing to see as she obviously was very happy with her new holder. We gave her the money she had paid and off she went to bigger and better work in her field.  Pictures can be seen at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/HsRPe9LmP6DuqSDn9 After-shool facility Later, we visited a private after-school facility run by a lady and her husband. The school gives kids courses in various subjects which are additional to what they learn in normal school hours. It also gives kids things to occupy themselves after school until the parents return home from work. They can teach some 40 kids in 4 classrooms which are...

 We have now been in Yerevan for 2 days and the first impression is that of a hot, bustling city of 1 million. The total population of Armenia is only 3 million, so Yerevan is a very important capital city. Arriving in Yerevan from the north one descends from the higher plains into the city which is much lower than most of the rest of the country. As it is now the end of August the days are hot and dry. Traffic is dense but moves surprisingly well on fairly well-developed large highways. The problem is when one searches out an address. This is quite an art as streets have back streets which lead to other back streets. Without a local driver, one would be hopelessly lost. One sees a lot of the leftover Soviet constructions of apartment buildings in various states of dilapidation. They were not nice looking when built and they have not improved with age. Today we visited two projects which had received support from HERA in past years. 1. Lady producing layered wool (Which is actually...

Yesterday on the way to Yerevan, we visited a small family-run cosmetic producer.  It was being done in the back garden of their property but they had proper labels and had grown their market. They need a machine to mix their materials and we approved the purchase of such a homogenizer. Today we went to the factory to see the machine and paid for it to be built and delivered next week. Pictures at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ottDujfEJx2ZENdn9 We also visited a lady in a very run-down apartment who said she needed a second sewing machine. She did not convince us that she was ready for a second machine and we suggested she reapply next year. The poor state of the apartment was shocking as can be seen in the pictures at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PPqLPdbcNKH3zu3V6 Note in the pictures above a system whereby there is a pole on which each apartment has a clothesline. A rather smart idea. After spending 5 days on the road, we have settled in for a 4 or 5-day stretch here in Yerevan. We wi...

 We left Tbilisi Georgia on August 19th. Dennis and Lynel had rented an SUV for our travels to Armenia. It was a big Toyota and comfortable for the 4 of us. Paul Steckler had left back to the US the day before. It took about 1,5 hours to reach the Georgia/Armenia border. Georgian formalities were quick and simple while the Armenian border held us up for over an hour. I had obtained an Evisa for Armenia. When I presented it with my Canadian passport, the border guard had obviously never seen such a paper. He called for the senior boss to come. He immediately told him it was ok. The others traveling on EU and British passports did not need visas that day! We then drove for 2 hours to the beautiful city of Dilijan where we met up with our Armenian driver and advisor, Anna Hovasinian. She drove her BMW to pick Nico and me up, while the others continued south to visit projects as far down as the border with Iran. Anna is a very capable Armenian  Consultant and entrepreneur who volu...

At the request of Nico Nissen, a former IFC German colleague, I joined the annual field visit of a small NGO called HERA. Its goal is to support women by creating jobs for them.  This is seen as a means of protecting them from human traffickers active in many Easter European countries. It has been operating since 2010 in various countries in Eastern Europe. Their approach is to offer grants for small capital items to existing women entrepreneurs. In all cases, the grant is given on condition they agree to create a new job,  while in others the grant is given to ensure the entrepreneur can stay afloat. I found the idea intriguing and agreed to meet Nico and his 3 colleagues in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.  The team had been working in Georgia for a week already.  I left Montreal on Sunday, August 15th to Frankfurt, Berlin, and Istanbul to Tbilisi. It was my first long trip in 2 years and actually took 24 hours from door to door. The flights were full but mask-wear...