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24 Mar 2025
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Description
Our foundation is busy transforming the little town of Tumanyan in Armenia's stunning Debed Canyon gorge, halfway between Yerevan and Tbilisi. Our foundation currently maintains a hostel, library, museum and social enterprise cafe in our attempt to create a tourism hub in our town.
Volunteers are provided a bed in a dorm room to stay with other volunteers, simple breakfast ingredients, and are only expected to help out 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. We are open to Workawayers from May through September and maybe October. The director of the projects lives by the hostel and will be hosting and helping with any questions.
So far we have a number of projects for our non-profit foundation. Any income goes back into the development of the town. We first opened the off-beat Matchbox Museum which always needs people to help keep the doors open and work on the displays. It's one door over from the International Lending Library we opened. One volunteer may need to manage both spaces, since neither is too busy.
We also have our non-profit Hostel which is still getting on its legs. Not too many guests know about it yet but it's important we have Workawayers on site to make sure every guest has a great experience and is informed well about all the amazing activities right out the door in the Debed Canyon, from hikes with incredible 1000 year old monasteries to river rafting to the museum and library, to coworking, there are many ways to spend your days in Tumanyan.
We have other projects as well, such as the social enterprise Cafe, which has helped bring some life to the previously mainly shuttered town square. These projects will help attract tourists to either stop for a visit, or to stay a few nights, which will create jobs and new business opportunities for locals. These non-profit ventures will see any potential income get reinvested into the community and the environment.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Hospitality/Tourism
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
All of our Workawayers have had an amazing cultural exchange experience. Locals are curious and hospitable, and you'll no doubt get to meet some of the colorful characters of the town. If you're not familiar with small town life, that's another experience to add to the Armenia experience in general.
Help
The most important qualifications are to be friendly, have a helpful attitude, and be a self-starter. Depending on the position, experience may be considered important.
Our biggest need is for help at the Hostel. Though it's not mandatory, we'd certainly love help from someone with experience at a rural hostel or two, though city hostel experience will do as well. We are looking for someone to primarily handle checkins / checkouts and make sure everything is in order, some bed setup, and spot cleaning. There will be a manager nearby in town who will be your contact in the community who speaks great English and will be happy to help with anything that comes up. There is also a local cleaner for the hostel, so this position is primarily about having someone helping with the coming and goings of the guests and making sure they have a good experience. Any social media help would be a bonus.
Our secondary need is for help staffing our Museum and the International Library, so that we can extend their working hours. They are located next door to each other and depending the situation, the same staff person or volunteer may be covering both locations. It would be ideal if volunteers at the library were able and interested in holding story hours, where they read one or two English language children's books aimed at preschool and kindergarten aged kids.
* The Hostel will open for the 2025 tourist season in May and help is needed in day to day operations, reservations and training local staff. It is a 28 bed hostel.
* The Matchbox Label Museum is a fun little space, which has already proven popular with visitors. We would consider a Workawayer for the museum who could extend the hours it is open and work on the displays and archiving.
* We would also like to find a Workawayer who is a social media wiz to come for a spell and really get all of these projects SM in order, as well as produce some quality photo and video content.
Other projects we would be interested to implement if a Workawayer with the right skills comes along, but are not as high on the priority list:
* A yoga instructor and a meditation instructor to lead classes in Tumanyan.
* Building a kiln to fire ceramics, sourcing clay and glaze, and getting ceramics production going.
* Scope out and blaze more hiking trails or mountain biking trails. Also simple trail maintenance/clearing.
* Begin the production of handmade blotting paper for a startup project.
A practical level of fluency in either Armenian or Russian would be a nice bonus, but we understand this is not likely and it is definitely not expected.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Armenian: Fluent
Russian: Fluent
Accommodation
The foundation will provide accommodation at our hostel in the town of Tumanyan, or in a guesthouse. You'll share a dorm room with other volunteers.
What else ...
In your off time there are great hiking trails to explore, with beautiful ruins of Kobayr Monastery, Grigori Bardzrakash Monastery, and Horomayri Monastery. A little further are Odzun Basilica of the 7th century, as well as the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Sanahin and Haghpat. River rafting excursions start right under the town in the Debed River. And of course, in your spare time there are a couple of thousand English language books as well. Tumanyan is almost exactly halfway between Yerevan and Tbilisi, two vibrant capital cities which are each 2.5 hours away. It's easy to spend the weekend in either if you're looking for some big city exploration in your off time. Though it may be important, especially at the hostel, that your days off be weekdays, not weekends.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have space and decent fiber optic internet. Not lightening fast, but more than enough for most purposes. Let us know if you're a DN looking for a place to disconnect, while staying connected. We feel it's a pretty ideal gig for a responsible DN.
Space for parking camper vans
We may be able to have you park in the factory grounds, please check and see what the possibilities are.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Feedback (6)
I spent 2 months in Tumanyan which was the best volunteer experience for me throughout the year. Host, Yermonia is very friendly and welcoming. Communication was easy and clear, and everything went very well.
The project we were working on with other volunteers was exciting!!… read more
The project is amazing with an hostel a café, a library.
I help to welcoming host sometimes, make some little work in the hostel, and to open the library, it was so exciting to be at the beginning of this job.
The exchange with Yermonia is easy, and we only work four hours a day five days a week. Let a… read more
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I spent 2 months in Tumanyan which was the best volunteer experience for me throughout the year. Host, Yermonia is very friendly and welcoming. Communication was easy and clear, and everything went very well.
The project we were working on with other volunteers was exciting!!… read more
The project is amazing with an hostel a café, a library.
I help to welcoming host sometimes, make some little work in the hostel, and to open the library, it was so exciting to be at the beginning of this job.
The exchange with Yermonia is easy, and we only work four hours a day five days a week. Let a… read more
The hostel (and the neighboring kitchen) had all the accommodation necessary for a comfortable stay, not to mention its amazing placement next to a lovely river, the football field where the kids came to play every day after school, and the mountains.
I taught kids English for a month in the town's cultural… read more
Workawayers can really take 100% out of the experience, living in a real rural Armenian village.
This workaway is not for everyone but if you really are up to go deep inside the local culture Tumanyan is perfect.
Armenia is an amazing country… read more
He was so friendly to everyone, very motivated to work, energetic, took initiative, and… read more
