Inessa's Story

Several times a day, Inessa’s youngest daughter asks to see her favorite black rabbit. She pets it, spends time with it, and loves being part of the small world her family has built around raising animals. “She’s absolutely obsessed with that little black rabbit,” Inessa smiles. Today, it is a warm part of their everyday life. But behind this simple moment is a story of rebuilding after one of the most difficult periods in the family’s life.

Inessa was five months pregnant when she and her family were forcibly displaced from Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2023. They moved to Vanadzor and had to start again. “Whatever situation I find myself in, I keep going. I find the strength to start something new and continue what I have already begun,” she says.

For Inessa, moving forward has always meant learning. With a background in English language and literature, she has also studied business, accounting, tourism, manicure, and other fields. After displacement, many of those different skills began to come together. While living in Artsakh, the family had already started raising rabbits, turkeys, and chickens. In Vanadzor, Inessa was determined not to leave that experience behind. At the same time, she was studying business more deeply and learning how to develop a business plan from scratch.

When she discovered the Armenian Fund for Sustainable Development’s Women’s Empowerment Program, she applied with a business plan focused on developing the family’s existing work into a more stable source of income. “I decided to use what I was learning in our own business, from developing the idea to understanding how to organize it properly,” she says. She did not expect to be selected. At the time, neither Inessa nor her husband was working, while the family was facing significant expenses. After her selection, the program team visited the family, assessed the space and the work they had already started, discussed its potential, and provided practical support tailored to their needs.

Through the program, the family received rabbits, roosters, and hens. The support quickly turned into results: once the roosters had grown, the family began selling them, the hens started laying eggs, creating another source of income, and the rabbits are now being bred as the family continues to develop the activity. “At that time, this became our main source of income,” Inessa says. “We had many expenses because of the children, and this helped us cover them.”

For Inessa, the program came at exactly the right moment. “It almost felt like an opportunity sent by God,” she says. “While it was a huge financial help, it gave us something even greater: hope and the motivation to keep going. It showed us that if you keep pushing and believing, things can turn out even better than you ever expected.”

Inessa is still learning and still looking for ways to grow. And perhaps the clearest sign of that new beginning is a very simple one: a little girl, a black rabbit, and a family once again building something of their own.

Arev Society provides management and communication support to the AF4SD "Vulnerable Women Empowerment" program.