Land and Culture Organization Plans Summer Campaign

Staff Writer

The Land and Culture Organization is planning its annual campaign from July 3-31, 2007, with the possibility of one in August as well. Volunteers will arrange for their own transportation to Armenia to meet with the group by July 3rd.

In 1977 a group of young Frenchmen of Armenian heritage led by Keram Kevonian founded the Land and Culture Organization (LCO) in France, which soon opened branches in the United States, England, and later in Armenia and other countries. LCO started to work in Armenia in 1989, after the disastrous earthquake. The organization was officially registered in Armenia in 1994.

For over 28 years the LCO has organized summer programs- popularly called “Campaigns” -in which volunteers from Europe, Canada, the United States and elsewhere join together on ancestral sites. They apply their physical energy and mental ingenuity to a variety of tasks in architectural preservation, land cultivation, and community development. LCO Summer Campaigns not only afford Armenians in the Diaspora the rare experience of discovering their ancestral roots and expanding their cultural horizons, but they also create opportunities that put ideals into action.

In 2007 Land and Culture will be working in the village of Azat, in the Vardenis region of Armenia, southeast of Lake Sevan.

Land and Culture is a grass-roots organization which believes that working on our historical lands is more valuable than just viewing it, for the volunteer and for the locals. They try to concentrate on the rural areas that have not received as much attention or help as the urban areas.

Basic information about past campaigns and volunteers statements are on the Land and Culture website, www.lcousa.org.

The Land and Culture campaigns in the rural areas give hope and moral support to the villagers as well as creating an incredible bond for volunteers with the land and people.