Berd Berry Eco Center

Please help the first domino fall!

Starting with a single teddy bear in 2011, the Berd Women's Resource Center Foundation(BWRCF) has blossomed into a series of projects that employ dozens of women in Berd and the surrounded villages. Only a few kilometres from the front line in Shamshadin, the women of BWRCF are busy making hundreds of jars of Berd Berry jams, thousands of finger puppets, key tags and pencil tops, bags and bags of herbal tea, hundreds of Berd bears and more...


Sounds idyllic and perfect, doesn't it?

Only one thing missing, and that is a home. In the past four years, BWRCF has been bounced around from one borrowed office to another...a dentist's extra room, a political party's empty office, and most recently an empty room in the old library - which has no toilet. This last place is slated for reparation at any time, so the clock is ticking for BWRCF to find a new place. 

Let's make that place permanent! Help that first domino fall.



A half-finished building with a large garden has been identified that will house the new Berd Berry Eco Center. According to their strategy, the goal is to:

'promote ecotourism in the region through expanding the capacities of eco-production, establishing a B&B  and simultaneously creating jobs for local unemployed women of Berd.

Currently, the production of both handmade crafts and berry jams/tea  is organised at the Berd Women's Resource Center's office, using only a limited area for two working groups. The majority of the products are sold during the local and international festivals, some part is sold in  Yerevan, at the shop of our partner organisation of HDIF (Homeland Development Initiative Foundation) located on Parpetsi 13,  and via our Facebook pages , website , as well as straight from BWRC office.

The demand for our products is increasing year by year, due to competitive advantages, such as a high quality of handmade products, being ecologically clean and safe, unique packaging made of environmentally-friendly materials. As for certification, handmade toys are already certified as  a safe clean product(WFTO certified and being presented in annual Fair Trade, in Frankfurt),  jams completed the certification process in Autumn 2018.'



What is needed?                                                      Where are the $ coming from?

Step 1. Property purchase: $12.000           Go Fund Me, Angel Investor

Step 2. Building completion: $21.825        HDIF-USA, United Nations, other donor

Step 3. Furniture: $4.548                                   Other donor

Step 4. Production equipment: $4.301      Other donor

Step 5. Garden upgrade: $3.707                    Other donor


How does your contribution to this campaign fit into this puzzle? It is the first domino of this whole set up.  Almost all donors have said 'If you have the building, then we will invest in you'. The first domino needs to fall. This is where you come in. If this campaign raises $6.000, then the angel investor kicks in. This secures the building and land. Then HDIF-USA kicks in, then the UN kicks in, and the dominos keep falling. We can do this.



For any other information regarding this campaign, please contact BWRCF president Anahit Badlian by leaving a message on this campaign. The Berd Berry Eco Center strategy and detailed budget are available. 

Thanks! 

Push that domino.....