Azernews.Az

BAKU – BP and its co-venturers in large-scale energy projects in Azerbaijan have launched three new projects to support community development in the country.

The initiatives include an economic capacity-building project for youth; a project on support for families with children through increasing the quality of innovative pre-school programs; and a project on a center of entrepreneurship for empowering youth.

BP is partnering with its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shahdaniz, and South Caucasus Pipeline projects to carry out the initiatives.

The economic capacity-building project aims to support primarily young community entrepreneurs in their efforts to enhance capacities, increase revenues and contribute to youth social welfare via sustainable and market driven solutions. The project covers 30 communities located in five western districts of Azerbaijan - Goranboy, Samukh, Shamkir, Tovuz and Agstafa along BTC/ SCP and three communities in the Garadagh district of Baku. BP and its co-venturers’ contribution to the project is $500,000 while the implementing partner - the local non-governmental organization UMID, will mobilize another $133,500. The project commenced in November 2010 and will last until April 2012.

Another project aims to improve the quality of public kindergartens’ pre-school programs and increase children’s access to the improved pre-school training through community-based innovative alternatives. The project will cover five communities in the Shamkir, Tovuz and Samukh districts along BTC and SCP. The year-long project is being implemented by the Center for Innovations in Education, a local NGO. The value of the project, which commenced in November 2010, is $101,500.

Under another project, the Center of entrepreneurship for empowering youth (CEEY) will function as a special business and management unit within Ganja vocational training center, reinforcing the facility’s efforts to foster youth entrepreneurship. The project will focus on target communities of the Goranboy, Yevlakh, Shamkir, Agstafa, Samukh and Tovuz districts along the BTC and SCP pipelines. The value of the project, which started in November 2010 and will continue until May 2012, is $99,000. The project will be implemented by Azerbaijan Community Development Research, Training and Resource Center.