On 11 December, the participants of the “Youth4Anti-Corruption” project watched the last part of the film about one of the advocates of the struggle for human rights, Nelson Mandela, at the Gyumri office of the “Armenian Lawyers’ Association” NGO.
“Within the framework of the program, we will watch two films with the participants, one of which is the film about Nelson Mandela. It is about struggle. I also always bring the example of Gevorg Marzpetuni, who says that one hand will not clap, he proved that it will. The participants of this program must be different from the rest with their honesty and anti-corruption knowledge, they must be able to bring changes,” Ms Gayane Gevorgyan, the project coordinator of Shirak region, lawyer of the ALA Gyumri office says.
Speaking about the program, she said that it is aimed at providing anti-corruption education to students and creating anti-corruption student clubs. And the program is distinguished by the fact that for the first time in Armenia such a program is attended not only by law students, but also by young people from various fields. The second feature of the program is the involvement of high school students.
Araksya Petrosyan is an 11th grade student of Gyumri College of Economics; although the topic has nothing to do with her profession, but she thinks that a person should be multilaterally developed.
“I am going to enter the University of Architecture, but regardless of the profession, a person must be multilaterally developed. If these topics are discussed in the environment, the person must be aware of that topic in order to speak correctly. I have gained a lot of knowledge from here, for which I am very grateful. I apply the knowledge I got from the course within the framework of the subject of social science at school and in general, I think I will still need it a lot in life,” Araksya siad.
She also enthusiastically tells that she won the second place in the “Corruption through the eyes of students” painting competition organized within the framework of this program, noting that those were her first professional steps and the first competition. “And my parents also rewarded me,” she joked.
12th grade student Emily Kirakosyan was very impressed with the film.
“This film was very motivating, it teaches that you have to be brave, you have to be confident in your own strength, because if you do not believe in your own strength, the other person will not believe,” she said.
It is very important for Emily that there is no corruption in the country, she is sure that she and her generation can play a big role in eradicating corruption.
“Thanks to the ““Youth4Anti-Corruption” project, we are learning how we can prevent corruption. Especially that we live in a country where corruption is happening before our eyes, we cannot make global changes only with individuals. We need to unite, arm ourselves with knowledge and fight corruption,” Emily said.
Ani Khachatryan is a student at Shirak State University, she is already in the 4th year, and she is studying tourism area. She is very happy that students with non-professional education have been given the opportunity to participate in an anti-corruption program.
“As soon as I saw such an opportunity, I tried not missing the opportunity, and I registered immediately. I was very interested in what it is, what it represents. Through the program I will be able to properly defend my interests in the future. I think everyone, regardless of the profession, needs such courses to have basic knowledge on this topic. The expectations I came from the program were completely justified. I have gained a lot of knowledge, for which I am grateful,” Ani said.
Gayane Gevorgyan, the project coordinator of the Shirak region, said that the young people performed very well, they even gave them cases for surprise.
“I am delighted with the youth participating in the program. Their approaches and perceptions are so different and interesting. Even unexpected and very professional questions are asked,” she said, recalling a case when one of the students asked an anti-corruption question during a meeting with a representative prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor did not answer, as the secrecy of the preliminary investigation would be revealed, but everyone was surprised by the question and the fact how a student with a different professional orientation could ask such a question.
It should be noted that the program is implemented in the framework of the “Youth4Anti-Corruption” project supported by the Government of Sweden, which will be accomplished in December.