Having left for my Peace Corps service June 1st, I only saw the early signs of the financial crisis that is apparently in full swing in The States. And yet every week someone here in Armenia asks me about the "financial crisis" in America. I saw last week on the internet that housing values in California have fallen 40%. For me these times just confirm what is always the best investment one can make: the youth of our country.
The young adults in my village may speak a different language and have different fashions than the American kids but actually seem to have a lot in common. They are energetic, curious and would like to have more say about their future. They are pointed down the path of education and promised rewards when it is completed. In the meantime, they are seldom invited to participate in the workings of their community. The result in both countries is similar as they attempt to create their own community networks over the internet and amuse themselves with computer games and cell phones. Instead of "MySpace" it's a Russian online program called "ClassMates." Lacking the money for expensive iPods, it is a common site to see one teenager holding 2 cell phones so they can share music through Bluetooth software. And while home computers are somewhat of a rarity, it is not uncommon to see students at their school computer labs playing "Vice City." So much for my idea of not seeing violent computer games for a couple years!
So several months ago when I heard about a Youth Bank program, I was interested to learn more. I liked what I heard and applied for the grant with a local youth NGO in our city. We were successful and then conducted interviews to select those young people who seemed to possess the desire and enthusiasm to make a contribution to our community. We selected 4 girls and 2 boys. ( I've had to get used to the fact that an unmarried 30 year-old is still a "boy" or "girl" but an 18 year-old who marries is not.) We had to find a replacement for one of our two guys as military service is mandatory for all 20 year old males.
Two weeks ago we took our group to Yerevan for 3 days of training in the world of "grant-making." American tax dollars are still a primary source of "seed money" for social change through organizations like US AID which funds this program through Eurasia Partnership Foundation. As you know the major drawback of such programs is that it can become like welfare, a crutch that some people become dependent on. There are countless numbers of NGO's (what we call Non-Profit businesses) that seem to exist solely for the purpose of getting salaries for the applicants.
What I liked about the Youth Bank Project from the beginning was that there we NO salaries. The grant funds were only $2,500 and all of that money was to be put back into the community via $500 projects. Our 3 day training was to help our youth through various role-playing activities how to decide what is a good project worth funding.
Our group met yesterday and began the process of designing a questionnaire to find out what our the main problems to address in our community. When they have finished their community interviews, they will design a poster requesting applicants and sometime in May will start interviewing those who have applied. I spoke with the leaders of a Youth Bank in another city who said they had about 20-25 applications to review before selecting the best for interviews. Whatever comes of all this, I can't help but feel our young people will benefit much personally. They will not only gain some financial understanding as they monitor the projects they fund but they will also become more engaged with the social issues of their own communities. Seems to me to be a good return for the $2,500 of tax invested. And then next year, they will be required to take it to the next level and raise the money themselves in the community. As was printed on the back of the shirts of our Youth Bank trainers: real problems, real money, real change.
As the program was winding down the final day I wound up chatting with one of the local cameraman filming the event. Having been raised himself during the Soviet era, he had a wonderful perspective on all the meetings and discussions the young people were engaged in. He told me that most of his generation of Armenians lacked the skills for collaboration, something I have greatly struggled with to help grow the tourism industry at my site. He commented to me that watching the young people working together was for him like "pushing back the invisible wall to progress in Armenia." I'd have to say that was a "good investment."
