Sashka Avanyan
Nationality: Canada
Organization Name: Creopia Productions
Impact Region: Western Asia
About the Social Business: Creopia is a creative production studio located in the mountainous Vanadzor, Armenia. Creopia helps purpose-driven organizations tell meaningful stories for greater social impact through video editing and animation. Our North American and European client base contributes to the growth of the offshore creative economy in northern Armenia. This serves the ultimate goal of reversing the creative brain drain in the region.
To further support this goal, Creopia provides training to local youth in video editing, animation and graphic design. The Creopia Creative Community produces local documentary content to surface challenging Armenian issues around gender, discrimination, sexual abuse and patriarchy.
Creopia productions was launched in 2019 by co-founders Sashka Avanyan and Lusine Poghosyan.
About the Y&Y Fellow: Sashka Avanyan, is a social entrepreneur and filmmaker. She was born in Texas and raised in Moscow and Toronto before settling in Armenia in 2018. Sashka studied philosophy in Canada at the University of McGill, where she simultaneously started her career in filmmaking and video editing.
In 2017, Sashka volunteered with Birthright Armenia, creating video content for The Halo Trust, on landmine removal, Teach for Armenia, on rural education, Women’s Support Center, on sexual abuse, among others. She developed a youth documentary film course for TUMO, the Center for Creative Technologies in Dilijan and in 2018 she gave herself a crash course in business by launching an offshore call center for a U.S. investor in Vanadzor. This gave her the foundation for becoming a social entrepreneur.
Since launching Creopia, Sashka has worked with clients including United World College, University of McGill, Transformancy, MindEquity, New Generation NGO and launched a video editing training program with a grant from the Stardust Startup Factory also supported by the Vanadzor Technology Center.
Sashka is most inspired by the magical power of the arts that enables young people to find their voices and initiate social change. She is greatly motivated by the untapped potential that lies dormant in rural armenia and will continue to strive for a model of an ever decentralized creative economy.
Sashka Avanyan
Nationality: Canada
Organization Name: Creopia Productions
Impact Region: Western Asia
About the Social Business: Creopia is a creative production studio located in the mountainous Vanadzor, Armenia. Creopia helps purpose-driven organizations tell meaningful stories for greater social impact through video editing and animation. Our North American and European client base contributes to the growth of the offshore creative economy in northern Armenia. This serves the ultimate goal of reversing the creative brain drain in the region.
To further support this goal, Creopia provides training to local youth in video editing, animation and graphic design. The Creopia Creative Community produces local documentary content to surface challenging Armenian issues around gender, discrimination, sexual abuse and patriarchy.
Creopia productions was launched in 2019 by co-founders Sashka Avanyan and Lusine Poghosyan.
About the Y&Y Fellow: Sashka Avanyan, is a social entrepreneur and filmmaker. She was born in Texas and raised in Moscow and Toronto before settling in Armenia in 2018. Sashka studied philosophy in Canada at the University of McGill, where she simultaneously started her career in filmmaking and video editing.
In 2017, Sashka volunteered with Birthright Armenia, creating video content for The Halo Trust, on landmine removal, Teach for Armenia, on rural education, Women’s Support Center, on sexual abuse, among others. She developed a youth documentary film course for TUMO, the Center for Creative Technologies in Dilijan and in 2018 she gave herself a crash course in business by launching an offshore call center for a U.S. investor in Vanadzor. This gave her the foundation for becoming a social entrepreneur.
Since launching Creopia, Sashka has worked with clients including United World College, University of McGill, Transformancy, MindEquity, New Generation NGO and launched a video editing training program with a grant from the Stardust Startup Factory also supported by the Vanadzor Technology Center.
Sashka is most inspired by the magical power of the arts that enables young people to find their voices and initiate social change. She is greatly motivated by the untapped potential that lies dormant in rural armenia and will continue to strive for a model of an ever decentralized creative economy.