The stories behind the numbers

Growing opportunities for Women into employment

Natacha Kalfayan, another of the growing number of social entrepreneurs in Armenia, founded The Made Centre, in Dilijan 18 months ago. The Made Centre has a mission to teach and improve skills in producing jewellery through running workshops and providing materials. The centre works with people who otherwise would struggle for employment.

“We focus on the ‘lost generation’ – those aged 35 to 60 who don’t understand or know anything about the internet or high-tech. They are not used to taking any risks. We provide them with a means to make money.”

The stories behind the numbers

Rebuilding the Film Sector

Raffi Niziblian, one of the co-founders of IFCA, picks up the story of how IFCA is helping to turn the situation around.

“As independent filmmakers, we have difficulties on many fronts. After almost two years on non- formal existence, eight of us came together to found the community with a shared vision to help improve the situation. Although we were formally registered in March 2019, we had already organised several strategic activities that led to our visit to Cannes IFF supported by EU-SMEDA. This visit enabled us to develop preliminary agreements for partnership such as our formal agreement with the Cobus Film Fesval in Germany that will be showcasing Armenian films in 2021 as Country in Focus due to our efforts. It is important to note that in this very short existence we have several vital activities. For instance we held an EAVE-on- Demand producers’ workshop, which teaches filmmakers better understand how to develop a co- production film project; a workshop with Kosovo’s Director of the Cinema Center, Arben Zharku; Eurasia-Doc film co-production training; and soon to be implemented conference on the Strategic Development of the Film Industry in Armenia. We are also happy to have crafted and presented the Armenian policymakers with a draft film law, hoping that it will allow them to ratify one very soon.”