Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

The Azerbaijani government and the UN agencies have wrapped up a media campaign aimed at improving the welfare of vulnerable social groups in the country.

The project, jointly implemented by the Azerbaijani Labor and Social Protection Ministry, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the UN Development Program (UNDP), aimed to ensure the rights and welfare of disabled women and veterans of the first and second Karabakh wars in the 1990s and 2020.

An event was held to discuss the results of the campaign. It was attended by the head of the ministry department for employment policy and demographic development, Rashad Dayiyev, UNFPA Azerbaijani representative office head Farid Babayev, and UNDP deputy resident coordinator Charu Bist.

Dayiyev described the project as significant support for the government work to secure the rights and well-being of vulnerable groups, improve their employment opportunities. He emphasized the importance of the media campaign carried out within the project.

Babayev said that group courses have been organized for almost 50 people with disabilities over the past five months and that media representatives have been involved in the campaign.

“Through videos and articles prepared during the campaign, the participants encourage the creation of equal opportunities for disabled persons," Babayev said.

At the event, Bist stressed that the media can be an important tool for raising awareness and fighting misinformation. He described as irrefutable the media's role in changing misconceptions in society.

The campaign, implemented by the Education HUB LLC, was aimed at promoting inclusiveness and creating a favorable environment for expanding the opportunities for women with disabilities and people with disabilities from the Karabakh war to integrate into society.

The project was carried out in Baku city, Salyan, and Masalli regions as part of the media campaign. Online courses were organized for groups of 50 disabled women, Karabakh war veterans, and media representatives in April 2021.

The participating groups produced social videos and media articles to promote inclusiveness and create a supportive environment for disabled people.

In the process of preparing the materials, the groups were supported by professional mentors. At the end of the media campaign, the jury selected the best social videos and articles.

Thus, the winner of first place received a monetary award in the amount of AZN 900 ($529.4), the holders of the second-place - AZN 600 ($352.9), and the third-place - AZN 300 ($176.4) each.

The project on ensuring the rights and welfare of disabled women and the Karabakh war veterans was launched in 2019 and will end in 2021.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz