Putting Ideals into Action
Land and Culture Celebrates 15 Years
The Land and Culture Organization (LCO) is perhaps one of the best-known Diasporan youth summer programs (See AIM August/September 1999). Set up n 1977 in France as a small grass-roots initiative, the organization now has additional branches in the US, UK, Belgium and:Armenia and has been organizing one-month summer volunteer programs for over 25 years. At first, these campaigns were held in Iran, in Syria, and then slowly, in Soviet Armenia. After independence, the focus changed to Armenia. By last year, LCO had four campaigns with a total of 60 working on two large scale construction projects in Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh. This year the LCO celebrates 15 years since its first campaign in Armenia back in 1989. LCO's Armenia chapter also celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, under the presidency of its founding member Gevork Yaghjian.
The organization's mission is two-fold: First, to undertake useful projects in cultural preservation, land cultivation, and community development; second to make young Diasporan Armenians more aware of Armenia and its reality. In the words of Raffi Niziblian, campaign coordinator in Armenia, "LCO sees itself as a gateway for the Diaspora to Armenia and hopes to play a key role in Armenia-Diaspora relations."
LCO volunteers work, eat and spend their leisure time in villages, gaining a unique, often life-changing introduction to Armenia that over the years has been shown to have a profound impact on young Diasporans. "Many, to their own surprise, come to discover or reexamine their own Armenian identity through the beauty and warmth, the hardship and struggle of the local people they encounter," says Niziblian, who himself was a volunteer in 1999 and 2001. At the same time the experience is also personally rewarding because participants truly contribute to the improvement of conditions. More than 10 volunteers decided to move to Armenian permanently as a result of an intense LCO experience. The benefits are not one-sided however. The villagers themselves also benefit as apart from the positive impact of the project itself on their area, they greatly appreciate interacting with young Diaspora Armenians and many of the expenses of the campaigns such as food and accommodation are fed into the local village.
Each campaign usually costs between $10,000 - $15,000 and vary from year to year based on the organization's direction, Diaspora concerns and above all, Armenia's priorities. For example, at the request of local residents, LCO volunteers worked on the restoration of the ancient church of the Gogaran village, 1.5 hours north of Yerevan, that had been damaged by the Spitak earthquake (1990-1996). Other important renovation projects include Saghmosavank (1998 - 2000) and Tatev's St. Minas village church (completed 1997).
More recently, LCO has undertaken more projects aimed at enhancing economic and social development at the community level. In 2003, the two key projects were the constuction of solar fruit dryers in the village of Ayrum, in the Lori region 15 kilometers from the Georgian border, and the building of a water pipeline at the Shushi regional hospital in Karabakh. Furthermore, almost 30 volunteers continued with the renovation of an Armenian home in Kessab, Syria that will become an ethnographic museum. According to Edele Hovnanian, president of the US LCO branch, this trend will continue "until Armenia's economic and employment situation get on more solid ground." In 2004 therefore, in addition to the ongoing project in Syria, two groups will work at the Shushi hospital again, while another group will focus on community development in a refugee village in Vardenis, east of Lake Sevan on the road to Kelbajar. And for the first time there will also be a short-term spring project with mostly local volunteers helping to reconstruct a section of the water system in Dprevan, a village in the Aragatsotn region North West of Yerevan.
Like Armenia, LCO finds itself in transition. With more and more young Diasporans wishing to visit Armenia and with new youth programs emerging, the LCO is working to respond to these changing conditions. Its multi-national outreach makes it stand out from other initiatives but at the same time more difficult to manage. But even as it evolves, remodels itself and grows, the LCO's central goal remains creating opportunities to put ideals into action and work on the land while preserving culture.