EPF Continues Rewarding Active Youth in Regions of Azerbaijan

EPF organized the Second Award Ceremony in Qazakh, Aghstafa, Samukh, Barda and Agcabadi on 15-16 September 2011, to recognize the efforts of young people who have been developing and sharing their thoughts on the issues of their communities on a web-based social network www.regiondan.info, tackling a range of issues such as social problems paced by youth in Azerbaijan, human rights, education and gender, freedom of expression in media, leadership, employment, poverty, etc.

As an extension of trainings provided in the framework of Citizen Journalism E-media Program for 150 young people in five regions of Azerbaijan, the blog was created with the purpose of promoting active participation of young people in society by rewarding innovative ideas in this respect. EPF has been following participants active on the network, and based on that has awarded 9 of the most read writers on the network in order to motivate them for further involvement in writing on social and economic issues and sharing them on the website.

The selection was based on statistics of the most viewed posts over the month of July and August. Ulviyya Babayeva and Namaz Karimov from Barda, Ruhiyya Imanova and Samir Babayev from Aghcabadi, Ismayil Suleymanov and Turkan Huseynova from Qazakh, Elvin Teymurov and Aygun Hasanzade from Samukh, and Rahman Ismayilov from Aghstafa were selected as the winners. Six of the winners were awarded with web cameras and 3 with flash cards for their effective use of the media.

The program has already started making significant impact on the lives of the participants. For example, one of the most successful participants of EPF’s program, Ulviyya Babayeva, as a result of her active civic engagement and efforts undertaken in the framework of EPF program, was able to obtain a job in media related field implemented by IREX in Barda.

The next stage of the program envisages Study Tour to be organized in September and Competition in October 2011. The study tour will enable regional youth to visit NGOs based in Baku and learn about their activities. The competition on writing, photographing and video shooting on social and economic issues of Azerbaijan will be open to young people who had already been trained by EPF in the framework of Citizen Journalism E-media Program. EPF will select the winners based on the quality of their media products.

Citizen Journalism E-Media Program, established by Eurasia Partnership Foundation, is implemented with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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