Azernews.Az

A Soviet-era kindergarten, overhauled with funding from oil giant BP and its partners, was opened in western Azerbaijan last week.
A total of 20,900 manats ($26,125) was spent on the project, in the Chobanabdally village of the Samukh region, by the local Umid (Hope) humanitarian aid center, Birlik (Unity) enlightenment society and the Azerbaijan Enlightening Youth Organization.
Elmira Rahimova, a spokeswoman for BP Azerbaijan, said during the opening ceremony that the kindergarten had been refurbished and equipped as part of the project on managing community micro-projects, which kicked off in January 2009. The initiative aims to assist 39 communities located along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan/South Caucasus pipelines -- from the Aghsu to the Aghstafa regions -- in improving infrastructure projects. Chobanabdally residents are one of the communities benefiting from the project.
BP and its partners have participated in 23 such projects in Azerbaijan since 2004, Rahimova said.
Hidayat Ahmadov, head of the Samukh education department, said the kindergarten building, originally built in the 1970s, had not been repaired for many years and had become dilapidated. Therefore, 20 of about 120 children of pre-school age in the village had been temporarily placed in the House of Culture, which lacked proper conditions. As a result, parents were having to bring their children to kindergartens located in other communities.
Ahmadov said the repair of the kindergarten in Chobanabdally will allow children to be raised in a better environment and assist in the process of their upbringing. The initiative will also help to provide local teachers with jobs. *