KASA SWISS HUMANITARIAN FOUNDATION

KASA, has developed and implemented numerous programmes with and for young people promoting non-formal education, active citizenship and social entrepreneurship. It has a profound understanding of the main challenges and opportunities that youth and youth institutions are facing in Armenia in general and in Northern regions in particular based on a continuous engagement with a wide range of relevant youth actors over the last years, committed to sustainable development of Armenia. Launched as a humanitarian initiative in its origins to support Armenians in need, today the organization has developed into a dynamic structure which looks for long-term and sustainable solutions rather than immediate support, and contributes to the development of quality education/training programs and socially conscious tourism in the country. KASA has been working on civic education for the past 10 years, through various formats and modalities of work - youth clubs, social innovation youth projects, youth platforms, youth spaces. The methodological search has brought up the need of working through active, youth-friendly, youth-tailored tools, which are not only educational, but also fun and engaging. KASA thus has developed youth-led development manuals with tips for civic-oriented youth work, educational board and card games for civic education (Civic, Percipio, QarKap, Symbolus, etc) with youth and adolescents, has developed a number of online tools for digital youth work. Comics project is another dream the organization had in terms of developing interactive tools, to give a chance to be a part of the educational material. KASA manages two social educational centers in Yerevan and in Gyumri, which focus on personal and social development. We help organize activities aimed at the socio-economic inclusion of young Armenians. Throughout the years KASA has implemented a vast number of projects that were directly aimed at youth employment and active citizenship. Within this context KASA has assumed the mission of encouraging young people to become actors in their lives and bring about positive changes in society. Starting from 2011 the foundation has started to work with youth, by creating and facilitating safe youth spaces, where young people could combine social interactions with educational activities, where they would find like-minded people who would share their vision and motivation to develop their communities. We provide our beneficiaries with an open and nurturing place, where they can freely exchange and debate ideas. In order to reduce the educational divide between the capital and other regions of Armenia and provide access to quality education in Armenian, KASA has been designing online courses (on civic education, social entrepreneurship, accounting, non-formal education and for touristic guides) since 2010. The courses have proved their effectiveness in terms of reaching people outside of Yerevan, as well as the ones who have other personal and professional engagements. In the frameworks of one of our projects we have developed a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on civic education for civic education providers which combines the theory, reflection and resources for those already teaching or planning to get engaged in this field. As a result of the last war in Syria around 17,000 Syrian citizens, mostly of Armenian origin, have traveled to Armenia for refuge. Since 2014 we became an official partner of the UNHCR who trusted us to work with refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people in order to improve their living conditions through educational projects, as well as to contribute to their integration into local society. In 2020 KASA in cooperation with Hayastan All Armenian Fund launched a project on Sustainable Development aimed at raising awareness of Sustainable Development Goals in public schools through extracurricular activities and developing green initiatives with the school children. The target group of the project was tea