One of the successful components of “Youth Civic Awareness Program” funded by National Endowment for Democracy and implemented by Uluchay was implementation of nine projects by youth groups, which are also participants of previous components of the project. Uluchay received 17 projects from project participants and jury decided to provide technical assistance  to nine projects. Total amount of technical assistance to youth small-scale projects was – 2,500 USD.

Followings are funded projects within this activity with detailed description: 

Anti-Smoking campaign;

The Anti-Smoking Campaign began in early December 2011, and provides interactive seminars discussing the negative impacts of tobacco and narcotics. The project discusses not only the harmful and negative health impacts on the body but also includes the risks that tobacco and narcotics pose to the environment as well. The project targets youth (ages 12-17) in schools from the villages and the city center as well as staff and faculty from these schools. At the end of each seminar, materials are distributed to all attendees to encourage attendees to become anti-smoking advocates who will continue to raise awareness after the training. The project will span a one-month period and a total of 75 participants will attend these seminars. 

2. Journalism in the Digital Age

The Journalism in the Digital age was a four-week session for 20 students from Sheki City. The first week focused on photography skills and training in photo-editing software. The second week focused on writing articles for newspapers, best practices in journalism and blogging as a means of journalism. The third week, participants developed a script for a local TV show to teach students about reporting and how to use video-camera and editing equipment. In the fourth week of the campaign, participants presented their work and were awarded certificates.

3. Developing Young Leaders

This project began on November 25 and continued until December 20, 11. The program targeted a total of 60 youth (ages 14-17) to provide them with leadership skills and resources that would encourage them to become responsible citizens in the future. Four training sessions were held at various schools throughout the central Sheki City area. A combination of presentations and interactive games and activities worked to develop: team-building skills, public speaking skills, and group management skills. The program was conducted by two local youth with the assistance from IREX Staff.

4. Child-Rights Project

The focus of the Child-Rights Project was to provide local youth (ages 14-16) of 3 different villages in the Sheki Region (Baltali, Qoxmuq, Oryet) with information about Child Rights and Human Rights. In each village a 2-day seminar was held. On the first day an interactive training session was conducted where information on: freedom of expression, freedom to gather, freedom of education, freedom to participate in the political process, freedom of information, the United Nations Convention of Child’s Rights and the freedoms afforded to individuals through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to these issues, survivors of child abuse were invited as guest speakers to share their struggles and their stories. On the second day of the seminar, a debate was held on the topic of corporal punishment as an effective and ethical means of discipline. A total of 60 participants attended both days of the seminars.

5. Computer Skills for Orphanage Children

The focus of this project was to provide local orphanage children (ages 12-14) with the basic skills necessary to operate a computer. Each session offered different skills ranging from typing practice, a basic overview of computer programs and simple technical and operational skills. A total of four sessions were conducted from November 22^nd until December 14^th 2011.  Fifteen children participated in the seminars and at the conclusion of the program, The children were excited to learn that they could share their experiences growing-up in an orphanage with a global community through blogging and social networking and asked the instructors to return to continue to provide additional trainings to further develop their skills.

6. Healthy life for orphanage children

Within this small project young people organized guest speaker sessions in the local Sheki orphanages in order to increase orphan children’s understanding of hygienic rules and how to live a healthy life. Following the presentation, all participants were given hygiene kits with: toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soap and cotton swabs. A total of 35 orphan children attended this presentation.

7. Safe Driving Campaign

The Safe Driving Campaign focused on increasing of awareness of drivers about safe driving and distribution of stickers to drivers in Sheki. The stickers were developed by a small focus group which designed and printed over 150 bumper stickers. This campaign was one of the successful among all funded projects and also covered by several online media agencies. A video of the project was prepared by the team and can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=206986296047320

8. Creating Young Environmental Advocates

This project was conducted in Cheshmeli Village at 3 local schools. There were a total of three information sessions held from the 21^st to the 29^th of November, 2011. Presenters provided an interactive seminar with discussions, presentations and movie clips that focused on: environmental protection in Azerbaijan, issues associated with climate change, ecological facts and information. A discussion of these issues followed and students worked with presenters to create environmental advocacy presentations to share with other students in the future.

9. Clean-City Campaign

The Clean-City campaign is a 2-phase project which ran from November 30 until December 14, 2011. The first phase was a training of trainers where 25 students from schools were trained on how to conduct a service project focused on environmental issues. One school from Sheki City (#18) and one school from the Cheshmeli village participated in the project. In the second phase of the project, the participants conducted a cleanup of their local community. Gloves and garbage bags were provided for participants.

For the evaluation of proposals of young people Uluchay organized independent jury consisted of active youth, previous alumnus of the project, NGO workers, Uluchay and private sector representatives. Jury provided necessary recommendations to winners and encourage them include villages to their activities in order to increase awareness of young people there. Totally 29 young people were directly involved to the implementation of small projects. Monitoring and evaluation of small-scale project was provided by Uluchay staff which were participated in each event organized by young people and provide all necessary support for the effective implementation of projects.