SHORT SUMMARY

Following Azerbaijan's Sep. 2023 ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), many journalists have now become unhoused refugees — after telling the world about the nine-month starvation siege, invasion, and exodus. This fundraiser will help them to ease their hardships and continue their freelance work.

IMPACT

The work that freelance journalists from Artsakh have done to raise awareness about the Armenian crisis is monumental. While they made little to no income doing this freelance work, the impact of their contribution is immense: virtually every report on the siege, invasion, or exodus featured the words, photographs, or writing of freelance journalists from Artsakh. It's often thanks to them that the Associated Press, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, NPR, New Lines Magazine, and The New York Times, to name a few outlets, reported the crisis. If we support them with housing and utilities, they can continue this vital work.

The Guardian documentary featuring an Artsakh journalist

PROBLEM

Like the entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), freelance journalists from Artsakh became refugees in September 2023. You have read their work, seen their photographs, and heard their voices on #ArtsakhBlockade, the invasion, and the exodus in every major media outlet. But now, the people that became the global voice for Artsakh are unhoused. Freelance journalists make very little (sometimes none at all) income. Even the best-known media outlets pay just a few hundred dollars for stories that can take weeks to write. Being a freelance journalist is a tremendous sacrifice, a sacrifice that refugees cannot sustainably afford in expensive Yerevan.

An openDemocracy documentary featuring an Artsakh journalist

SOLUTION

There is a way to allow displaced journalists to continue their work! This fundraiser aims to offer each qualifying journalist with a monthly allowance of $1,000 for housing and utility expenses.

METHODOLOGY

Qualifying journalists will be vetted by Simon Maghakyan and Scout Tufankjian.

Displaced freelance journalists from Artsakh interested in obtaining support through this fundraiser must fill out the following form.

The fundraiser creators would like to help all qualifying displaced freelance journalists from Artsakh, but the extent of assistance provided to displaced freelance journalists will be based upon the quantity of donations received.

To respect the privacy of the awarded journalists, the latter's names will not be publicized by reArmenia or fundraiser creators. However, if they choose to do so, awarded journalists are free to publicize being recipients of the Displaced Freelance Journalist Fellowship.

TEAM

The fundraiser is organized by U.S.-based writer (https://time.com/author/simon-maghakyan/) and researcher Simon Maghakyan, best known for his pioneering investigative exposé of Azerbaijan's covert erasure of Armenian heritage, and U.S.-based photographer Scout Tufankjian (http://www.scouttufankjian.com/), best known for her photographs of Barack Obama, the Armenian Diaspora, and Artsakh. 100% of the donations will go directly to displaced freelance journalists from Artsakh: reArmenia doesn't charge processing fees for fundraisers.

BUDGET

The fundraiser's entire budget is for one purpose: to give qualifying displaced freelance journalists from Artsakh housing and utilities allowance of $1,000 USD each (in Armenian drams, roughly 400,000 AMD each) for a period of time. See the sample budget here.

For US taxpayers interested in making a tax-deductible donation:

reArmenia Inc. Account number: Citibank, 208499343, Address: 13243 Schoenborn St. Sun Valley, CA 91352

Purpose: "Donation to reArmenia/Artsakh journalists"