On July 3, all 42 successful businesswomen who were beneficiaries of the “Support from Successful Businesswomen to Novice Businesswomen” initiative of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation, were handed their certificates by Executive Director of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation Anna Hakobyan during a solemn ceremony, after which all the beneficiaries signed grant contracts and received AMD 1,000,000 each.
“I would like to express gratitude to you because you did what you did by breaking the stereotypes in your respective communities, and because we all know what it means to be and live as an [Armenian] woman in a province and do something that is beyond the boundaries of the family and kitchen. We all know the suffering it takes, and this is exactly why I would like to thank you because you took that road and stepped outside the boundaries of your families, but by doing that, you contributed to your respective families’ welfare and supported your spouses, you did it for your children and communities. Overall, you are creating good for our country, and this is a great and appreciable act,” the Executive Director of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation emphasized.
Anna Hakobyan also extended thanks to all the women who accepted the invitation to attend the charity dinner and donated the amounts that have now been granted to the novice businesswomen.
“I hope much more women participate in this initiative next year. I also hope we organize the charity dinner much more easily and distribute the funds, that is, AMD 1,000,000 to much more women because we are trying to turn this into a tradition,” Anna Hakobyan stressed.
The ”My Step” Foundation’s Executive Director voiced hope that the 42 novice businesswomen who received the grants this year, will participate in next year’s initiative as successful businesswomen and will help others grow as businesswomen. Member of the Board of Trustees of the “My Step” Foundation and the task force Lena Nazaryan told the attendees that she had personally studied all the applications and really wanted everyone to win.
“I am delighted by this because I know that when a person starts a business with scarce resources, that person faces twice as many or multiple difficulties. I simply admire the efforts that you have made to this day, and I saw this in your respective applications. There was a high number of people who applied for the grant, and to determine who will receive the contribution, we tried to get a picture of the work that the participants have done, not who they are, based on the applications. When we saw that particular novice businesswomen have already invested ample time, resources and efforts and are in need of certain equipment, we gave preference to those women because we believed that this will definitely lead to an outcome,” Lena Nazaryan remarked.
“I believe the statement “men are stronger than women” is a lie because women are stronger; besides tackling their tasks, they also tackle half of the tasks of men. So, I soulfully and wholeheartedly wish you all success and ask you to not lose the talent that drives you to do these heroic deeds,” member of the Board of Trustees of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation, head of the task force Vahagn Tevosyan added.
The beneficiaries of the initiative also gave their speeches. “I don’t believe that besides me there is any other mother among the 42 attending women who hasn’t sacrificed her only precious one for the homeland. However, you are the powerful women who were able to find the strength inside and participate in the empowerment and stabilization of the homeland. We are building a powerful homeland, and I thank you for doing a good deed for the homeland that my son defended,” Arsine Sahakyan, who has established a guest house in Bnunis village of Syunik Province, emphasized in her speech.
Launched about 3 months ago, the initiative is aimed at supporting novice businesswomen with the help of successful businesswomen. After the charity dinner, the “My Step” Charitable Foundation received 166 applications in the first stage, and the whole course of the initiative was summed up by the Deputy Director of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation for Operations and Public Affairs. There were two conditions to make it to the second stage — do business in any one of the provinces [of Armenia] and have the status of legal person. There was an exception only for the women who were forcefully displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh (their applications were approved without preconditions). As a result, 106 applicants made it to the second stage.
“Each of them received a new format for filling out the applications (drafted by the task force), and within a week, 95 of the applicants sent their applications to the Foundation and continued to compete. All 95 applications were assessed individually and on the basis of 8 criteria, starting from competitiveness of the particular idea and ending with financial impact on business growth and expansion. As a result, based on the total of the personal assessments conducted by the members of the task force, the 42 successful businesswomen with the most points became beneficiaries of the initiative,” Deputy Director of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation for Operations and Public Affairs Davit Mkrtchyan remarked.
Davit Mkrtchyan added that, based on the signed contracts, the Foundation is entitled to conduct monitoring and, upon necessity, request a report as well, and that the Foundation will follow to make sure the provided financial assistance serves its goal.
After the official part of the event, that is, the handing over of certificates and the signing of contracts, Anna Hakobyan invited the guests to take part in a talk around a bonfire. All the participants shared stories about their businesses, talked about the hardships, and each of them emphasized the importance of the initiative and the need for its continuity. Anna Hakobyan and the beneficiaries ended the nice day with musical performances and a round-dance near the bonfire.
