Society is indifferent towards NGOs due to the fact that they are only recognized by documents and do not implement any projects. According to the national survey conducted by the international fund of electoral systems in 2003, it turned out that 43.3% of adults did not even know what an NGO was.
What are NGOs? What do they do? How effective are their implemented projects and how are they financed? NGOs are non-profit and non-governmental organizations. The first law written about NGOs was in 1996. In 2001, the National Assembly passed a new law which clarified the process of NGO registration. This explains why there are so many of them. Until the earthquake, there was not one NGO in the country. They were formed after the earthquake and that is when NGOs developed and spread throughout Armenia. Are these organizations really necessary? There are fields where state programs are not that effective due to lack of financial means and other reasons. We can say that the NGOs truly play major roles in human rights, ecology, issues concerning refugees, children and the elderly.
However, financial support is needed in order to start implementing any project. This is the biggest problem. According to the law, the budget of the NGOs consists of the membership fees, grants and donations.
Let’s observe these financial sources one by one. We start with membership fees. Everyone knows that not only in Armenia, but also in world, it is impossible to carry out any project by solely depending on the money received through membership fees. The other internal financial source is donation. Basically, we presume that the state companies must provide the NGOs with amounts of money in order to implement projects. However, the NGO leaders do not hide the fact that no businessman gives them any money and they say this without any shame. As a matter of fact, recently, businessmen themselves are forming different types of NGOs, which function only during the pre-election period. We can not deny this, but on the other hand, let’s mention that we can not blame them either. Not everyone in Armenia trusts NGOs and nobody can be 100% sure that the money is spent for a project. Let’s mention one detail: the law about NGOs permits NGOs to create a profitable corporation and transfer money received to the organization. But very often NGOs take advantage of their rights. First of all, they don’t want to have anything to do with the internal revenue services, and secondly (of course, this is a subjective opinion), why torture yourself when you can find other ways of getting money? NGOs demand that the internal revenue services give them corporation privileges. From the finance perspective, there is also one source: governmental aid. Last year, 50 million drams of the state budget was provided to the NGOs. That amount has doubled in the proposed budget plan of 2006-100 million drams. Opinions differ concerning this issue. Some believe that on one hand, the amount is small and it is practically impossible to solve serious problems and on the other hand, they welcome the state aid. Others are strictly against this, claiming that the authorities will look for an opportunity to make it look like they are helping the NGOs; however, the distribution of money in the corrupted field and future use worries them.
So, how do the NGOs get financial aid? The answer is clear: through international grants. For example, in 2003, the total amount of grants given to NGOs in Armenia (all donors included) came up to be more than 12.5 million USD (of course, in contrast to this, the 200,000 dollars of the budget is simply ridiculous). The largest donor for the NGOs is the American government. The U.S. has provided more than 39 million dollars to the NGO sector of Armenia throughout the years of 2001-2004. It is no secret that many NGOs are formed in order to receive foreign grants and then keep it all for themselves without even using that money wisely. That is why Armenian society has come up with a new word: “grant eater”. International donors have already taken notice of this and now receiving grants is not as easy as before. In addition, international organizations base their decisions on the fact that our country has recorded two-digit marks in economy in the past years, so Armenia can get along without international aid. In any case, grants are still granted. Some experienced NGOs are actually using the money wisely. However, if funding is from abroad, then the demands are also from abroad. Our NGO leaders claim that although foreign organizations provide the money, however, the leaders are the ones who decide what to do with that money. It is really not like that. The grant is given for a certain project and under certain conditions. In many cases, Armenian NGOs don’t care and don’t even think about whether or not that project is based on our national interests or not, or if it is good for our reputation or not. Let’s try to prove that.
As we already mentioned, one of the main financial sources is the U.S. government, in particular the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). During the years of 2002-2004, through funding provided by this organization (approximately half a million dollars), six Armenian NGOs have implemented a project, which (known on the website page) is called “Domestic Violence Program”. The project is aimed towards victims of family violence. Let’s see who the victims are. One of them is the wife whose husband has beaten a couple of times or the child who has been beaten by his mother. According to some NGOs, these are unjust acts of violence which need to be fought against. “It seems as if the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not even know about these issues. They say, why waste time on a family where there have just been one or two beatings. That is why the wife does not want to call the police,” says owner of the Helsinkyan organization’s Vanadzor branch Ararat Markaryan. They say with disappointment that the wife doesn’t leave her violent husband or call the police because her children need a father. Of course, we are not justifying the wife beater husband, but why get mixed up in this in the first place if the wife is not complaining? Let’s say you went to the home, taught the husband a lesson by telling them that a woman is not a slave, that she can appeal to the court, then she goes and does that-the husband gets arrested and the family falls apart. Is this better? No doubt you remember the famous Armenian film about the man, his wife and the story about their rings…Why are you trying to fit in between the finger and the ring?
If this is comprehensible in some way in regard to husband-wife relations, it is not so when it comes to parent-child relations. How can you let the mother beat her child?” Who will believe me when I say that I don’t know whether the NGO cares for the child more than his own mother? In the U.S., a parent who abuses his child can be sued-this is the “peak of democracy”. But do we really need that level of democracy? Americans try to attract our attention with the plot played out in American films. It goes as follows: “My dad used to beat me when I was a kid, I lived through stressful times and grew up retarded.” But that doesn’t fit in with one of our Armenian songs “Whoever has not cried from his mother’s slap, has been raised an orphan.” If it was really like that, 90% of Armenians would be psychologically ill.
There are also completely absurd situations, when the “victim of family violence” is neither the wife nor the child, but rather the husband; the head of the family. As a matter of fact, according to many respected donors, it is bad when the head of the family is the father. “The tradition of fatherly rule is still strong in Armenia. Even in families where both husband and wife have the same level of education and work experience, men rarely do house chores or take care of the kids. This is one of the studies done by the USAID specialists and, as they say, “no comment is necessary”. It’s like they care more about the situation at hand than us. What we really should suggest them doing is to come and do house chores for us if they really care that much.
There is no need to be surprised. For foreigners it is a usual thing for the wife to come home and see her husband washing her cleavage. We are not used to that and that’s why we are unusual to foreigners who wish to get rid of the “manipulation” process.” They want that and even provide money for similar absurd projects. As we mentioned, approximately half a million dollars was provided for these types of projects in the years of 2002-2004. USAID emphasizes the role that these types of projects play in the strategic plan foreseen for 2004-2008. It is very possible that USAID will continue funding. The Women’s Development Fund of the UN has also joined the USAID. The fund will provide 100,000 USD grants to the winning NGO contestants.
This is the case when you agree that the NGOs take the money and make personal expenditures rather than aiming for a target. We admit that we are rude, high tempered, we have bad personalities; however, it is hard to say that others are more respectful towards women than Armenian men. We don’t feel the need for help from others when it comes to that. Before implementing any action, it is important to take other issues into consideration besides the money. If we listen to what Europeans and Americans have to say about everything, then different types of sexual and religious minorities will govern us (if they have not already achieved this). The sad thing is that, among Armenians, there are people that do not realize what’s going on or don’t want to. Is it really worth a couple of pennies to make a family fall apart and in the end be like Panjuni to proudly say that “we saved the principle of revolution; Tsaplvar is lost..” Then we add the following line about the literary hero: “Send money to my new address,” proving once again that “grant eater” is not such a bad synonym…