AGBU Hye Geen Launches New Program at the Pregnant Women Centers in Armenia

AGBU Hye Geen Centers established in 2002, celebrated its 15th year anniversary in 2017. In the last fifteen years, in five Centers, over 2,700 young women in rural villages of Armenia, as well as Yerevan, were nurtured, supported, and educated by the professionals running the centers. Importantly, the sisterhood that has risen from this unique collaboration has empowered these women and has sustained them through good times and bad.

In order to grow the programs and further enlighten young women about the realities of marriage, juxtaposed between the traditional images, roles and values, and 21st century needs that are expanding the role of women in the family and society, Hye Geen has begun a new educational program.

Faculty members of Yerevan State University in collaboration with AGBU Hye Geen have prepared a course, which to date has been attended by approximately 25 young women. Some of the topics discussed were:

Etiquette of couples’ communications
Assertive behavior to learn how to say NO
Spousal communications within nuclear and extended families
Family planning means and methods, and family planning services in Armenia
Avoiding abortions and especially selective abortions
Practice of making: joint decisions, sharing family duties, budgeting and time management
Marital crisis and ways of preventing and overcoming them

After the initial success of the pilot program, the program will be available in the five Pregnant Women Centers. The course is three months in length and each Center will enroll 20 to 25 young unmarried women ages 16 to 23, especially those who have not received a higher education. The courses will be identical in all the centers and a specialist will supervise the project.

AGBU Hye Geen is proud to have been and continues to be an agent of change, and at the forefront of women’s issues both in Armenia and the diaspora. The ultimate goal will be to target couples, who will participate in the program to make their life more fulfilling and beneficial to all.

We greatly appreciate our partners in Armenia who have been working diligently to accomplish the goals set for the future under the immediate leadership of Professor Lyudmila Harutunyan.