YEREVAN—Though its focus has been on Armenia for the past two years, ONEArmenia has made a shift towards the Armenian diaspora by announcing an Instagram photo contest, judged by Scout Tufankjian, that will paint a picture of Armenians outside of Armenia, taken from their own perspective.
Engaging with the Armenian diaspora is a key element to all of ONEArmenia’s projects. With its new 1A Embassy ambassador program launching in September, ONEArmenia seeks to grow its global community and make its relationship with the diaspora “official”. The new program will invite individuals around the world to become dedicated extensions of the organization’s mission and focus, undertaking responsibilities such as organizing fundraisers for ONEArmenia and sharing information about the organization and its projects in their local communities.
To kickstart the launch of its global embassy, ONEArmenia has announced an Instagram photo contest focused on the diaspora. Armenians all over the world will be asked to upload a photo that shows what their diaspora community means to them. Those who wish to participate in the contest must upload their photo to Instagram with the hashtag #SHIFTperspective.
The contest will launch on September 15 and end November 1. Judging the contest will be Scout Tufankjian, an Armenian-American photojournalist who is currently working on a photo book tentatively called The Armenian Diaspora Project. Tufankjian’s choice for the best photo will win $1500, while a second $1500 prize will go to the winner of a global online vote on Facebook.
Non-profit funding platform ONEArmenia was founded in September 2012 to stand with the change-making individuals and the organizations they represent, using social media and crowd-funding to involve anyone with an Internet connection in boosting projects that are geared toward making tangible changes in Armenia now. The ONEArmenia network makes it possible to not only raise money for a project based in Armenia as a worldwide community, but to also track the progress of said project with complete access to financial information.