The Syrian Armenians’ Union projects and services for Syrian Armenian businesspeople and jobseekers are now available at www.syrarbi.am created by GIZ.

Since 2013, the Syrian Armenians’ Union NGO (SAU) has been supporting Syrian Armenian entrepreneurs and startups.

The Union has already 500 members and has helped over 400 Syrian Armenians so far. Over the past 2.5 years, the Union has received large-scale support from GIZ’s “Economic Integration of Syrian Refugees in Armenia” project. After the end of the project in March, the support will be ongoing, however, rendered by another key partner - UNHCR.

Now the Union introduces two new projects – InfoHub and Syrian Armenian Industrial Zone (SAIZ). InfoHub is a free single-window referral center which will provide all the necessary business and employment information not only to Armenians from Syria but also locals.

On the other hand, SAIZ will provide paid business services, such as marketing and accounting consultancy and protection of rights. However, there will be discounts for business services and renting of space.

According to the project manager Tatev Hovhannisyan, while creating the free and premium membership options, they used the best international practice.

However, one of the founders of the Union, George Bedourian claims participation in exhibitions was one of the main drivers of his business development.

Chemist by profession, George Bedourian started his business back in 2014 after moving to Armenia from Syria. First he took a loan, but a year later, he started getting support from GIZ. He says it’s really hard to run a business in Armenia even now.

Members of the Women’s Group under SAU have also been participating in exhibitions for the past 3 years in a row, as individuals at first, but later, as members of the Women’s Group. Now the Group has 7 members representing different sectors – embroidery, jewelry, food production etc.

Ayda Santurian is one of the members of the Group. She was a teacher in Aleppo for 13 years, but here she’s engaged in embroidery. Ayda thinks they’ve so far succeeded in Armenia. “We continue working hard to involve more people from Syria and to develop our products”.

Amalie Khachatryan