On April 17, 2013, Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Christian Education Center with support from Armenia Inter-Church Charitable Round Table Foundation (ART) and UNFPA Armenia, launched a three-day conference devoted to gender issues, gender violence and responsibility of fathers. The conference is held within the framework of "Gender transformative approach to prevention of gender violence" project.
Representatives of FBOs, non-governmental and international organizations, as well as Government and Parliament of Armenia were present at the opening of the conference.
During the first conference day a number of presentations were made on issues such as family values, gender equality according to the Bible; the phenomenon of gender violence and the situation with domestic violence in Armenia; the role of men in preventing gender violence. In addition a number of culture specific cases were discussed.
It is already several years that through the cooperation between the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Christian Education Center, Armenia Inter-Church Charitable Round Table Foundation and UNFPA Armenia implements the "Spiritual Support to Families" project that is aimed at addressing a variety of issues within the family, in particular, pertaining to different manifestations of violence, through spiritual conversations of priests in schools with parents and students of higher grades.
This year, senior school students from nine regions of Armenia, personnel of four military bases, newly married couples or couples intending to marry soon, as well as families in difficulties are the beneficiaries of the project.
