Armenia
 The YES Debate Club Project promotes dialogue among young Armenians.
The National Debate Championship is the closing event of the Youth Engaged in Society (YES) Debate Club Project, which brings together students from eighty high schools throughout Armenia. Initiated by the Jinishian Memorial Foundation, a relief and development organization of the PC(USA), the debate clubs and closing event improve active participation in dialogue and action around human rights and democracy in Armenia. The students also practice respect, patience, and tolerance.
During the 2008 championship, fourteen teams with more than one hundred students debated four topics related to civil society. One participant from the city of Gyumri said, “The most challenging and exciting thing about the championship was that our team united representatives from six different schools from our town, most of whom had been our rivals in previous debates. Now, I have five new friends and hope these friendships carry on.”
One of the mentors of a team from the capital city, Yerevan, said, “I think this championship is a wonderful opportunity for students to meet their peers from other schools, for students from the regions to explore Yerevan, and for students to spend a few days as members of a family called the YES project.”
This is but one of many projects operated by the Jinishian Memorial Program in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. All Jinishian activities include a spiritual component.
Partners/Ministries
Armenian Evangelical Church and Theological Institute: Rev. RénéLeonian, moderator Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church: His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians [See of Etchmiadzin]
Armenian Catholic Church: Archbishop Nerses
Jinishian Memorial Program: Ms. Eliza Minasyan, director
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Michael Whalen, GAMC
Barbara White, BOP
Cynthia White, GAMC
O God, let our debates sew friendships over strife, harmony over dissonance, and draw us into lasting peace. Amen.
Ps. 102, 148 Ps. 130, 16
Hag. 1:1–15
Rev. 2:18–29; Matt. 23:27–39
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