Date: May 26, 2002

Time: 1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Activity: Tour of the Eurasia Foundation Supported Projects

You are cordially invited to attend a special tour of Eurasia Foundation Supported Projects in Armenia on Sunday, 26 May.

This tour has been specially designed to familiarize interested attendees of the Armenia Diaspora Conference with the operations of the Foundation in Armenia.

Established in 1992, the Eurasia Foundation is a privately managed grantmaking organization dedicated to funding programs that build democratic and free market institutions in 12 NIS countries. The Foundation has received a significant contribution to its projects by the Diaspora. About 500 projects for a total value of more than $8.5 million were funded in Armenia.

The trip will begin from Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 9:00 am and will return to the Ministry at 5:00 pm. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet local staffs and see for themselves how dollars are spent in Armenia. The trip will introduce participants to:

Gind Printing House
One of the crown jewels of Eurasia Foundation programs in Armenia is the Media Strengthening Program (MSP), to which the Cafesjian Family Foundation has provided significant support. To promote the free flow of communications and to strengthen Armenian’s independent press, the MSP has provided extensive training to newspaper staffs and has established a state-of-the-art, commercially viable printing press at the Gind Printing House of Yerevan with the objective of serving independent news publications.

CISCO Regional Network Academy
The Cisco Systems Regional Academy at the State Engineering University of Armenia in Yerevan is the first of its kind in the Caucasus region. It is fully sanctioned by Cisco Systems, and its graduates’ credentials will be recognized worldwide. Each year, the academy will graduate 30 Cisco Systems computer training specialists, who will then be authorized to train and certify other students at local academies in Armenia and neighboring countries. This is one tangible result of a cluster of twenty projects in support of the high tech development in Armenia.

We hope to see you on Sunday, 26 May. Lunch and snacks, translation and communication means will be provided. If you are interested, please sign up for yourself and any interested guests here by May 24 at the latest.