Meet Our Volunteers

Philomene Chivard

FRANCE

Thank you for bringing a smile and creative ideas to our team.

About Philomene

“I ended up in Armenia by a happy hazard, I was intrigued by the mission Armenian Volunteer Corps offered me with ISSD․ I was surprised when I saw how much was yet to be created in terms of infrastructures, laws/rules and especially in awareness because that’s where everything starts. I couldn’t really do it myself because I was lacking skills in Armenian language, but I tried to help in my own way with the set of skills I had. It ended up being a vast majority of missions based on creativity and graphism, I loved it!”

Philomene is a positive Frenchwoman whose creativity does not have limits. She is passionate about salads, chocolate, knowledge, humor and unusual ideas.

Concerned about global warming and the environment, she tries to do at least one good thing for her planet every day. And so, one of these good things was joining the ISSD team as a designer. Philomen has helped our team a lot by developing the most creative and unusual designs for a number of NGO’s programs.

Thank you for bringing a smile and creative ideas to our team.

Meri Minasyan

ARMENIA

We thank her for volunteering at ISSD and bringing light to “Humans of Nature” initiative.

About Meri

“Now, as a result of human activities, the planet suffers a lot and because of this it’s important for me to contribute to increasing public awareness about environmental protection. That’s why I chose to volunteer at ISSD NGO.”

Meri is an enthusiastic eco-activist, who studies at French University in Armenia. She is an advocate of nature and women’s rights, FLEX exchange program alumni. Meri has invested her efforts in the “Humans of Nature” initiative for about 5 months. In this period she has been identifying our potential “heroes”, talking to them and writing about their amazing stories.

Besides these stories, she has also done a number of translations.

Ophelia Arutiunian

RUSSIA

We thank Ophelia for loving nature so much and for “infecting” people with that love.

About Ophelia

“Armenians didn’t really care so much about ecology and I wanted to change it. I’m an Armenian and I’m concerned about the current environmental situation in the world, particularly in Armenia. ISSD has great projects and ideas that have a positive impact on the environment and society. I wanted to be part of this organisation which cares about people and ecology, I wanted to change the current environmental situation.”

Adventurous and nature-lover Ophelia joined “ISSD” and worked on the “Humans of Nature” initiative. The list of our “heroes” expanded and now we have more interesting stories thanks to her.

We thank Ophelia for loving nature so much and for “infecting” people with that love.

Henrik Toremark

SWEDEN

Thank you for your great contribution to the waste management field in Armenia.

About Henrik

“I joined ISSD because I was seeking practical field experience from a community-driven waste management initiative with a possibility to contribute with my skills in project development. ISSD was an excellent platform for networking and gaining skills useful for professional and personal development. My main reason to apply was to learn about how the ISSD team motivates regular people and decision-makers to join the fight to make Armenia’s waste management system more sustainable. Thanks to ISSD’s warm and resourceful team members, I did not only learn all about waste management in Armenia but I also made friends for life, was taken to beautiful places and fed with local fruits and food on a daily basis.”

Meet our next volunteer who joined us to support “Recycle it!” initiative. He is Henrik and his main motivation is to know better how waste management and community-based programs work in Armenia. Besides supporting “Recycle it!”, he has also done some research, helped in applying for grants, and more.

We thank Henrik for joining us and for his great contribution to the development of the waste management field in Armenia.

Emma Carroll

SCOTLAND

Thank you, Emma, for your presence, positivity, and your contribution.

About Emma

“I wanted to join ISSD to be able to spread my knowledge and passion towards protecting the environment and recycling in Armenia. I believe that recycling is extremely important and so I was very motivated to help share the awareness of how important it was as a society to recycle and dispose of litter correctly. After hearing about ISSD, I thought the NGO was an amazing cause with lots of great ideas to help make a difference and I wanted to help be a part of it.”

Emma joined us and started supporting the team in development of a workbook aimed at teaching Armenians “Reduce, reuse, recycle (3R)” concept. She also supported us in developing creative and unique educational materials.

Thank you, Emma, for your presence and for your contribution.

Lene Lilendal

NORWAY

Thank you Lene for your great effort and creative approach.

About Lene

“I joined ISSD because within my study of Social Innovation, I focus on sustainable development of communities and wanted to gain some in-field experience with just that.”

After joining us, Lene started to support the development of ISSD’s “Armat” social project. She has done research, explored international international experience and tried to digitize it.

We send our thanks to her.

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