Sprouting seeds of kindness. Cooperation between FAO and Vedi school grew strong
Ararat marz, Armenia – Basic school N1 in Vedi, Ararat marz of Armenia, is among the selected benefiting from the Russian-funded FAO assistance aimed at strengthening food security and nutrition in selected countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, including also Armenia. They operate an almost 200 square meters greenhouse thanks to the project, and excel in its management. Now the school received an electronic whiteboard, too, helping distant learning.
The cooperation with the school began in 2017, when a 198 sq.m. greenhouse was built by FAO at the school backyard to cover the school’s needs for additional food supply and to diversify the schoolchildren’s diet, as well as use the greenhouse as an educational platform and organize open classes for students.
Days and weeks of hard work, commitment both by the school staff and by the FAO project team, and here we are today – the school has a flourishing greenhouse that gives fresh produce, solicitous staff that cares for every growing plant, and the schoolchildren who benefit the most of it - they are lucky to taste the fresh grown and delicious greens and vegetables every day.
Alvard Papoyan, the school director, is well known in the marz and among her colleagues for her enthusiasm, energy, and positive attitude, and her willingness to do more and better. Her personality helped the links between the school and the project team grew into a good and friendly relationship.
“There is a saying, that ‘the seeds of kindness are hard to sprout, but the fruits are sweet’. Here are the seeds of kindness sown in our school by FAO, that reached out a friendly hand to Vedi N1 basic school donating a greenhouse with heating and cooling system, and today – we received a very valuable gift - an electronic whiteboard,” said Papoyan with a smile on her face.
“The school staff and I personally express our deep gratitude and appreciation to you for being with us, for believing in us, for trusting us, for our close cooperation, which was based on mutual respect and made our dreams come true,” added Papoyan. “We are proud of our close cooperation and hope that it will last for long. Sincere thanks to FAO and the whole project staff.”
Even despite the hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic particularly for schools and schoolchildren, employees of the Vedi school continued to take decent care of the greenhouse, grew healthy cucumbers and the harvest said it all. It was also in due time that the FAO project provided the electronic whiteboard to the school, as it will be extremely useful during distant learning in case the schools do not open in September, and beyond.
The cooperation between the school and FAO covers various events with educational significance, such as conferences, trainings, seminars, which were organized with high-level participants. Both the staff and the pupils were trained in greenhouse production, management and maintenance; received hard copies of comprehensive and user-friendly guides on tomato and cucumber cultivation in heated greenhouses. They were continuously provided by advice on cultivation and maintenance by the project technical experts – both local and international. The school was chosen to host FAO’s World Food Day event in Armenia, as well as organized the first harvest celebration in 2018.