WomanPower Armenian-style

In anticipation of the Armenian Adventure, I had the privilege of meeting and talking with several members of the Board of AIWA, the Armenian International Women's Association, in Watertown, MA yesterday. I am early in the networking process, but I am going to predict now that this meeting was instrumental in my education about the status of women in Armenia and current programs to support their empowerment. These American women of Armenian descent are highly educated contributors to health care, education, development, women's rights, and science, in this country and in Armenia.

We talked about everything from the personal connections that explained how I got to the meeting, to reproductive health policies to the rise in c-section rates to maternal mortality worldwide. We established enough connections among us (Wellesley, the State Department, public health, the judiciary, daughters) to know we could do business.

There is nothing to match a group of strong, smart, energized women with a shared goal. The AIWA Board welcomed me with overwhelming generosity, making me feel I was among friends who both would help me make the most of my time in their beloved Armenia--and who would gladly accept whatever I could offer in the way of skills and experience.

One of their programs, carried out in conjunction with the American University of Armenia, is the Women's Entrepreneurship Program (WEP), which has already graduated over 200 women who want to start businesses or be better managers. AIWA (www.AIWAInternational.org) also supports a health center offering sexual and reproductive health services, a shelter for battered women and children, a women's center, and scholarships for women.

I came back to the quiet of the lake at sunset with the distinct feeling that I was standing at one of those turning points in life we look back on and say, "Ah! That was the moment I embarked on a new path."