CINF Returns to Artsakh, March 2019
This month, representatives of the Christians In Need Foundation (CINF) returned to Armenia and Artsakh, to the joy of students and friends, for a week-long visit. CINF President, Rita Mahdessian, Vice President, Siobhan Nash-Marshall, and Advisory Board Member, Antonia Arslan arrived in Stepanakert for their annual spring trip in the evening of March 11th. As always, the trip reconnected CINF representatives with former and potential students, educators, clergy, and government officials in preparation for the organization’s 2019 summer courses in Artsakh.
In the summer of 2018, CINF sent five American interns to teach English Language, Logic, and Ethics in Stepanakert, Artsakh. Courses, held in tandem with Artsakh State and Mesrob Mashtots Universities in the city, garnered the interest of more than two hundred students from across the country. With the end of classes, an “Artsakh Ethics Bowl” brought together CINF students, Artsakh educators and government officials to engage in a debate-styled competition. Greatly enjoyed by CINF students, the event gave them the opportunity to practice skills learned in class with their fellow peers. Artsakh educators and government officials were also invited to participate as judges. Officials were particularly excited by the event’s potential to encourage the development of Artsakh students’ critical thinking and teamwork skills. Since the 2018 summer session, which concluded at the end of July, both CINF and Artsakh have looked forward to this March reunion.
On March 12th, Mahdessian and Nash-Marshall met with the Artsakh Minister of Education. The Minister expressed interest in seeing CINF courses held in villages throughout Artsakh and working with CINF to implement Ethics Bowl events in schools across the country. The Ministry is also moving forward with its plans to include Nash-Marshall’s The Sins of the Fathers: Turkish Denialism and the Armenian Genocide and Arslan’s Book of Mush in Artsakhtsi students’ required reading.
During the course of the trip, CINF also met with rectors, professors, administration, and students of Artsakh State and Mesrob Mashots Universities. All were eager for CINF teachers to arrive beginning in June 2019. Several former students volunteered to help CINF prepare for courses in the coming summer. A select few have been recruited to work with CINF’s NGO branch in Artsakh.
Among these 2018 students, one was so inspired by her teachers that she is now determined to build a school in her hometown, Martakert, to teach those subjects introduced to her by CINF courses. CINF’s March trip included a visit to Martakert for this reason and Mahdessian, Nash-Marshall, and Arslan were astounded by the poor condition of the only school there. Martakert, only a mile from the Artsakh-Azerbaijan border, is partly destroyed by war. The dilapidated school building, being restored by hand by the school Principal, is pockmarked with bullet holes, many of which remain from the 2016 “Four Day War.”
With the conclusion of the trip, CINF now enters into the final planning stages for the summer program. The 2019 session is likely to include a greater number of courses than the year previous, some potentially offered in villages and towns like Martakert. Within the next few months, CINF will also work with the Ministry of Education to train schools across Artsakh in how to host Ethics Bowls of their own. Both CINF and the Artakhtsi agree that this coming summer shows great potential and hope for Artsakh.