Children of Armenia Fund, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Armenia has an intense divide between its cities and its remote rural communities. This puts the education — and thus the future contributions — of rural Armenian children at risk, and causes these children to miss out on the potential the country is showing. CAOF seeks to address the issue by empowering the next generation of Armenians in those rural communities by investing in their education, health, and community & economic development.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Education
Rural Armenia Initiative
COAF has concentrated most of its resources on rural communities that are in immediate danger of extinction and trailing behind the cities in economic development. Many of the children in these communities are faced daily with malnutrition, no drinking water, and lack of basic conditions to live in human dignity.
Vulnerable to the growing divide between the fast-changing cities and the neglected country side, these once tightly-woven, family-oriented communities with strong Armenian cultural traditions are losing ground as parents and young adults abandon their ancestral homes for economic opportunity in the city or other countries. These historically precious villages, often considered the soul of the Armenian culture, are on the brink of extinction, which could occur as soon as within one generation.
Healthcare
Building local capacity among rural health practitioners is critical in creating a healthier quality of life and maintaining the long-term sustainability of health services throughout the villages of Armenia. COAF has been instrumental in providing rural physicians and nurses with updated training, renovating several healthcare centers and health posts, providing critical equipment and furnishings and increasing the accessibility of medical services. Health education at an early age has been proven to lay the foundation for sustaining improvements in public health.
The following interventions constitute the core of COAF’s Health Program:
1) Health Promotion in Schools and Communities
2) School Nutrition
3) Comprehensive Dental Care
4) Support for Reproductive Health
5) Supportive Supervision, Continuous Medical Education and Networking of Health Professionals for Improved Primary Healthcare
Child and Family Services
Strengthening and preserving village communities and empowering village residents are key to COAF’s holistic approach to rural development. The Child and Family Support Program aims to build stronger self-reliant social networks and offers a multitude of child-centered services which include:
1) Social-Legal Counseling Services
2) Psychological Services
3) Establishment of Child Development Centers
4) Speech Therapy services
5) Continuous Professional Development of Local Staff
Economic Development
COAF's Economic Development programs support rural economic growth and stimulation. Improved infrastructure is a critical prerequisite for economic development. Providing farmers with better access to irrigation networks has proven to increase agricultural development. Empowering rural businesses through provision of essential skills, knowledge and resources and identification of competitive advantages helps advance the primary goal of organizing local economic development interventions.
Providing alternative financing options for start-ups and existing local businesses is another key component of COAF's economic development interventions. In this respect, COAF's partnership with Cascade Credit in 2009 was instrumental in facilitating the disbursement of nearly $1,000,000 in small to medium-sized business loans.
Four programmatic directions of our economic development include:
1) Interest-Free Loans
2) Business and Vocational Trainings for Youth
3) Marketing and Information Support
4) Agricultural Development and Access to Irrigation Water
Infrastructure
Twenty buildings have undergone capital reconstruction (including renovations, refurbishments and modernizations) since 2004:
7 schools, 3 kindergartens, 9 health units, and 1 community center.
Water systems serving more than 18,000 villagers have been installed; over 15,000 meters of crucial irrigation pipelines have been repaired.
A community center, sports complex and public parks/playgrounds have been built.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of communities that benefited from the activities of the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of indirect beneficiaries
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
COAF has served more than 107,000 people
Number of students in schools where the organization has been involved
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Around 18,000 beneficiary school students enrolled in 45 COAF-supported schools, of which over 14,000 students are benefiting from full or partial renovation of COAF-supported schools.
Number of professionals (club leaders, social workers, psychologists, teachers, etc.) who attended the capacity development trainings
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Over 240 professionals (club leaders, monitors, social workers, psychologists, speech therapists, English teachers, etc.) improved their capacity through reflection and training sessions.
Number of students who participated in after school activities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Education
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
In 2021, 1,214 beneficiaries in 25 villages throughout 5 regions participated in Education programs weekly.
Number of children who received dental treatment
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Healthcare
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of women who underwent breast and thyroid gland screenings
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults
Related Program
Healthcare
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
COAF’s health screening and treatment campaigns reached out to 2133 women and men in 41 villages, which targeting breast and thyroid gland screenings/ultrasound examination.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) works to secure a future for children in Armenia's impoverished rural villages through improved education, healthcare, community life and economic conditions. Our programs create and sustain opportunities for growth and progress.
COAF envisions a world in which all children have the opportunity to achieve their full potential and in turn contribute meaningfully to their communities and to the world around them.
In our work with the people in the rural villages of Armenia, we strive to ensure that no potential, no skill and no creativity goes to waste. As each village slowly rebuilds itself, its priorities change, as do ours.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Economic Development
Since COAF's inception, we have done much to repair the local infrastructure and restore basic living standards and human dignity to the villages. Economic development plays an enormous role in ensuring that these changes are sustainable and form the foundation for further achievements.
Local Capacity Building
Our goal is for each village to become self-reliant. In order for current progress to persist, a village must be able to sustain itself by relying on its own resources: human, financial and natural. People in COAF villages develop their skills and learn their rights and obligations as citizens as well as the obligations of the Armenian government. They learn to trust each other and to make their voices heard.
Networking
Human relationships are critical to knitting a society together and moving it forward. COAF creates professional, social and cultural networks that connect people within and among villages. These networks create more opportunities for teamwork and facilitate more ingenious or wider-ranging solutions to problems. Such shared knowledge and experiences are vital to developing trust among villagers.
Expansion
Since 2004, our programs have yielded remarkable results. With your help to grow resources, we can scale up our initiatives. To that end, we carefully document and evaluate our experiences and programs. We believe that collaboration with like-minded organizations within and beyond Armenia would allow us to provide more villages and people with the tools and support they need for advancement.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Headquartered in New York City, COAF also has a field office in Armenia, where all of the organization's activities and day-to-day operations are carried out. COAF is both a fundraising and implementation entity, which limits third party involvement. The organization has no political, religious or institutional affiliations, nor does the organization lobby or ear mark any of its funds for political or religious purposes. Each project and village where COAF works is designed with the express intention of building local capacity and local ownership of all projects. This will help sustain COAF's programming impact beyond the scope of the organization's presence. The organization has also set up a protocol meant to guide program goals, objectives, and create a useful feedback loop.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Since 2004, we have seen firsthand how our programs have strengthened the communities we work in and
how every person was empowered to dream big, achieve their full potential, and contribute to the advancement of their communities. From our 64 villages to our SMART Center, our office in Yerevan to the office in New York, our 107,000 beneficiaries to our many donors, these values build on our vision and unite us to make our mission possible.
Our impact in 64 villages for over 107,000 people continues in 2021:
● 3,000 weekly attendance at the COAF SMART Center in Lori as we returned to in-person classes
at full capacity.
● 150 of our most vulnerable students have so far received tablets preloaded with the COAF
SMART Curriculum app (1,300 tablets needed to fully cover all students).
● STEM education has been integrated into all of our COAF SMART Safe Rooms in the border
villages of Tavush.
● 100% of our educational programs are utilizing E-Learning components designed by our team,
through our COAF SMART Citizen app, with new modules updated weekly.
● Monitor, increase awareness, and care for beneficiaries and refugee families as the pandemic continues, as
well as providing psycho-social and speech therapy to support numerous individuals and families
affected by the war.
● The Concept Hotel located at the COAF SMART Center is booked every weekend this year with
guests and corporate events.
● Our COAF SMART Visitor Center on the interstate highway is open seven days a week. Last
year, we added an AmeriaBank ATM, EasyPay Payment Terminal, and EV Charging Station. We
are expanding its operations in 2021 with rental equipment (biking, hiking, camping) and
marketing materials (maps, brochures, videos, social media platforms, website) as part of our
Debet Canyon project in partnership with the European Union.
In 2021, COAF plans to continue providing rural Armenians with the resources they need to build their
own future. We are prioritizing the construction of the SMART Health Center, so families in the region
are able to access state-of-the-art medical care, and we will continue to house refugee families, helping
them find their feet in their new communities. COAF’s next initiative will be the launch of a SMART Village model which will serve as a cornerstone for infrastructure enhancement and business expansion for the 950 villages across Armenia. Our Debet Village in Lori, where the COAF SMART Center is located, is our very first SMART Village, and, in just four months, we have made groundbreaking strides towards Debet’s rehabilitation. The creation of
sustainable village life remains at the forefront of COAF’s operations. In this moment of nation-building,
it is imperative that we return displaced people to a life of some normality, and work to give all our
people a sense of hope for Armenia’s future.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Children of Armenia Fund, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 11/08/2023
Dr. Garo Armen
Agenus Inc.
Peter Balakian
Colgate University
Khalil Barrage
Invus Group LLC
Gregory Ekizian
Victory Capital Management
Larry Feinberg
Oracle Investment Management
Diron Jebejian
Credit Suisse
Shake Nahapetian
C.V. Starr & Co. Inc.
Vahe Nahapetian
Entrepreneur
Alice Saraydarian
Private Practice
John Saraydarian
Private Practice
Mary Pendergast
Pendergast Consulting
Natasha Avanessians
Partnership for New York City
Vahe A. Dombalagian
Madison Dearborn Partners
Hasmik Dombalagian
Private Practice
Debra Ohanian
Producer
Jacqueline Vartanian
Genesis Realty Inc & Genesis Funding
Natasha Avanessians
Partnership for New York City
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data