With the help of World Vision, Anton Dovlatbekyan has fulfilled his dream of opening a bakery in his native village of Gandzakar. His business is doing so well that he can now donate bread to the local nursery every day.

The bakery was established with the help of World Vision’s Building Sustainable Livelihoods project.  This three-year initiative started in 2004 with the aim of adding value to the projects and activities implemented by World Vision’s work in the area. It works with rural families and farmers associations in 40 communities located close to the Armenian-Azeri border. It also works with refugees, the internally displaced and landless people.

“We provided Anton with all the apparatus and utensils necessary to operate a small bakery, as well as consulting him on various business-related issues, such as bookkeeping, taxation and obtaining a health certificate,” explains the World Vision project manager Curt von Boguslawski.

Gandzakar has around 3,800 inhabitants and until Anton set up his bakery, all their bread was brought in from the regional centre six kilometres away. In winters, when the roads were covered in snow, the issue of daily bread became even more urgent. Unsurprisingly, the villagers were relieved when Anton opened the bakery – especially because Armenians eat almost everything with bread and it also the principal food on festive tables. Anton bakes to order for birthdays, baptisms and wedding celebrations. The bakery also makes delicious biscuits.

With his new bakery, Anton and his three employees are able to look after their large families. Anton is looking forward to participating in bookkeeping and accounting training to be held in local business centre and plans to invest in a new building for the bakery, which is currently housed in his basement. He also wants to expand production and hire two new people and is looking forward with confidence. “The quality of the bread we make will win all the customers in my village,” he says.

The bakery also serves as a pilot business for other eager entrepreneurs and World Vision’s Building Sustainable Livelihoods project is discussing opportunities for launching similar projects in stone-processing and wood-processing.