There are six adults in Anna Hakobyan’s household, but none can find a stable job in Armenia. Every year, Anna’s husband leaves their village and travels to Russia, hoping to find work for a few months at a time.

“In the community where we live, there are not too many job possibilities, and everything seems very hopeless,” Anna says.   

Once part of the Soviet Union, Armenia became independent in 1991, and the industries once linked with Russia declined. With few natural resources and closed borders, the costs for imports are high — and nearly everything is imported.

The best job opportunities in the country are in the capital, Yerevan, but the average monthly salary of 55,000 to 72,000 Armenian drams ($115 to $150 U.S. dollars) barely pays for an apartment, which costs at least $120 at the most basic level. Anyone coming from outside the city struggles with the high cost of living, especially when the harsh winters cause the cost of utilities to skyrocket. 

More than 80 percent of the population survives on bank loans or has to pawn family heirlooms. Most men, like Anna’s husband, rely on finding work in Russia. But in the past few years, lower salaries abroad have forced entire families to begin to migrate.

Despite this, Anna perseveres in her village, Maralik. Like most people there, she scrapes by on “survival agriculture,” raising whatever meager crops she can manage to grow during the warmer season and storing a small harvest for the difficult winter months.

Even in the heat of the summer, families must think about the winter. Maralik is located in the Shirak province, where temperatures in the winter can drop to -30 degrees Fahrenheit. When they can, people in the villages store food and wood for winter. With few forests, though, wood is expensive. Those who have animals dry and store the dung to heat their houses. Many rural families can only afford to heat one room in the house, so during the winter everyone lives together. Those who can’t afford even that live without heat altogether. 

Anna’s family was chosen last year to receive sheep to raise for milk and wool through a compassionate initiative of the Nazarene church. With this new promise of an income, their future finally felt brighter. 

A year later, the eight sheep Anna’s family received have given birth to six new lambs. The family now enjoys regular milk from their sheep and can sell wool and manure to buy healthier food, heat, and other necessities. 

"The project seemed to be a light in the darkness and a hope of starting something that will take care at least of basic needs of the family,” Anna says.

Have you any wool?

Sheep and chickens have become the Nazarene church’s response to the high unemployment throughout Armenia’s Shirak province, especially in rural villages of Maralik and Akhuryan. 

Moved by the increasing difficulties families face, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries partnered with Foods Resource Bank to address the problem of hunger and poverty. Now, three years in, the church and communities are working together to help local families raise sheep and poultry to generate the milk, wool, eggs, and manure that provide the stable incomes families need to improve their well-being. 

To date, 30 families like Anna’s have joined the sheep project in Maralik, and 30 have received chickens in Akhuryan. 

Most of the participants have some experience raising sheep or chickens, but they gain more knowledge and confidence from training that addresses skills such as how to recognize and treat diseases and infections, how to protect livestock from wild animals, where to get better prices for grain and vitamins, and how to find grass and prepare for winter. 

“The training about taking care of the animals and also about nutrition and hygiene for our families was very helpful and gave us a lot of knowledge,” Anna says. “Every year we are getting more experience in raising animals.” 

Participants from the first two years of the project are now able to give back, too. Many still attend training sessions so they can help the new beneficiaries by sharing their own experiences and insight.  

Participants also agree to share 25 percent of their earnings with the project so that another family in the community is able to start their own small business next. Compassion keeps multiplying. 

“We are very happy seeing the results of the project when we have access to the wool, milk, manure, and lambs,” Anna says. “Now we are dreaming and hoping to grow the project. Our goal is to make it into a family business. Even if it does not become a big farm, we know that we have the animals and that we are able to take care of at least our winter needs.”

And for Anna, the changes to her family’s well-being are evident.

“My life is different, as the project is something that I am mostly managing, which gives more importance to me as a woman,” she says. “My son is doing very well; a very happy boy. I am very grateful to be part of this project.”

So much love

To feed the nine members of his family, Gevorg Serobyan used to rely on the potatoes, greens, and beans his family could grow on a small portion of land in front of their house. Gevorg is a war veteran, and his mother suffers from problems with her back. With three children — one only three months old — and no stable source of income, Gevorg and his wife struggle to meet their daily needs.  

Fortunately, they had experience raising cattle and pigs, so when the sheep project came to Maralik, Gevorg’s family saw it as hope for a better future. They received eight sheep, which have since given birth to four lambs. The wool their sheep produce is a valuable commodity, used in Armenia to make the blankets and mattresses that are essential during the cold winter months. With wool and milk, Gevorg can trade in local markets to gain different types of food, clothing, and shoes for his family. 

Before she received her chickens, 59-year-old Siranush Babudzyan didn’t know what food security felt like. Her husband and two grown sons could find only occasional work, and with four grandchildren depending on them and one son facing critical health problems, the compassionate project came as a gift from God. Siranush is taking great care of her chickens, and thanks to income from selling eggs, she is now able to provide daily bread for her family. 

“The project was a real blessing for me and my family,” Siranush says. “Not only do we have unlimited access to eggs, but also we are able to exchange the eggs in the local market and get bread, pasta, sugar, tea, sausages, etc. Now I know even in need, at least the daily basic needs of my family are provided.”

Because of their experience and the relationships they formed through the food security project, Siranush and her grandchildren started to attend the Nazarene church in their community. 

“Through the project, I experienced so much love and compassion by the church people,” Siranush says. “The church helped my family with chickens without any conditions, but only with love and care, teaching me to be responsible, helping other people, and teaching me very important values in the church.”

 She adds, “I have learned the love of Jesus Christ in my life.”  

--Republish with permission from the Summer 2016 edition of NCM Magazine