Zarmanazan Western Armenian summer program 2025: pre-registration now open
The Armenian Communities Department is pleased to announce that the ninth Zarmanazan Western Armenian summer program will take place from July 11 to August 6, 2025, in the Alpine region of Haute-Savoie.
The program offers three distinct yet closely linked components:
- A program for children and teenagers aged 10 to 17
- A program for young adults aged 18 to 24
Participants in all age groups will engage in a variety of activities tailored to their specific age, and taking part in intergenerational activities are also encouraged. These include workshops in visual and audiovisual arts, crafts, music, body and theatrical expression, creative writing, literary reading, philosophy, outdoor games and environmental exploration.
All activities, as well as daily interactions, will be conducted in Armenian, with the guidance of a team of highly qualified and talented facilitators.
Please note that the workshops for young adults may involve both spoken and written expression. Therefore, adult participants are required to have an intermediate level of proficiency in Armenian.
The number of participants in the first two components is limited. The third component is:
- A university program for Western Armenian teachers.
This intensive program, designed for teachers of Western Armenian, leads to a diploma awarded by the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO, Paris). It includes both theoretical instruction from specialists and supervised practical training. The first part of the program will take place during the Zarmanazan summer session, while the second part will be held at INALCO during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Participation in this program is limited to 15 people.
Zarmanazan is a space where children, teenagers, young adults, teachers, and facilitators from the Diaspora come together with a shared goal: to explore all the possibilities of Western Armenian.
Pre-registration is open until February 21, 2025, at 11:00 PM GMT.
To access the registration form and learn more, please visit: https://www.zarmanazan.com/en/welcome-to-zarmanazan/
The Zarmanazan educational project, launched in 2017 by the Armenian Communities Department of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, is part of a wider initiative to revitalize Western Armenian. It is organized in partnership with the association Mille et Un Mondes (Lyon, France) and the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO, Paris).
The Zarmanazan summer program is officially recognized by the French Ministry of National Education.
For more information please visit this page.
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This is a very important program and I support it very much. If you have the privilege of sending your children and teens, plesae make use. We hear it is excellent with excellent positive outcomes!
Unfortunately, both of my children are Type 1 diabetic, and one other condition.,and they cannot be accomodated due to the need for a nurse ( especially due to overnight low blood sugars). Our main immersion is a local church, but the last years have been a bit isolating and have not been able to attend ( which they did as very young children) and family is remote or deceased. They have comprehension and know what they can from prayers and speaking with me ( and i am losing my language skills again, but trying alone is hard) . The same condition prevents them from going to all of the Armenian camps in the US. I have checked for 13 years and communicated quite a bit. There is not many options for our family, or children with disabilities or intensively manageed chronic conditions, and language lessons are costly to increase or retain our Western Armenian.
At least they can sing songs and pray. We never forget these, but it has never been enough to achieve actual fluency, for any of us.
If you have the privilege of getting your children and youths into these amazing programs, please do! If you have the ability to support or fund and contribute to this amazing program-please do! This is not complaining, just remarking of some overall widespread limitations of children with medical conditions in general to accessing some remarkable and amazing programs for our youth.
I am so grateful that the community has these resources. Please, please make use of them with your kids, support, donate, amplify.