Sewing and design has been a profession for Gyumri-based Astghik Kurghinyan for 20 years. She started at home as she sewed and designed clothes for acquaintances, and later she started working at a sew studio. It took Astghik 20 years to gather strength and achieve her dream of having her own sewing studio.

Astghik learned about the “Support of Successful Businesswomen to Novice Businesswomen” Program or in short “From Successful to Novice” Program of the “My Step” Charitable Foundation by chance, that is, on the Internet. She applied without any expectation to succeed. However, Astghik Kurghinyan’s business passed all the stages of the competition and was included in the list of the top 42 applications.

After receiving the AMD 1 million grant, Astghik spent all the money on new sewing machines and other necessary accessories. “It is very wrong for one to get the impression that this is not a lot of money because a novice entrepreneur in Armenia can achieve many things with AMD 1 million. If I didn’t have the money, it would have taken me years to achieve all this. Instead, I achieved all this in 2-3 months,” Astghik Kurghinyan emphasized.

The Program’s beneficiary is certain that women’s involvement in Armenia’s economic development is indispensable.