Children's Education in IDP Communities Project 

In October 2009, Counterpart International (Counterpart) began a 12-month Children's Education in IDP Communities Project (CEP) in Azerbaijan. The project is funded by the Bureau on Population, Migration and Refugees (BPRM), U.S. Department of State. The project will rehabilitate a dilapidated kindergarten in the Boyuk Bahmanli village, the largest settlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Fizuli District. In addition, Counterpart will strengthen the capacity of IDP community-based organizations to improve children's education, and create an early childhood development program for pre-school children. It is envisioned that 712 children under the age of 6 will gain access to pre-school education as a direct result of the project.

A National Advisory Committee (NAC) has been assembled to ensure the complementary use and leveraging of public resources allocated for IDPs. The committee is represented by officials of the Government of Azerbaijan (Cabinet of Ministers and Ministry of Education), the Government of the United States of America (U.S. Department of State and USAID) and Counterpart.

On October 9th, 2009, the NAC met for the first time. NAC members noted that CEP directly supports the President of Azerbaijan's initiative to support innovative approaches to kindergarten education. They identified a number of opportunities for leveraging support for the benefit of over 700 IDP children in Boyuk Bahmanli and the neighboring villages of Ashagi Kurdmahmudli and Yuxari Kurdmahmudli.

For reasons of safety, construction will not begin until it is certain the area is free of landmines. Therefore, mine-clearing of the project site has been identified as the top priority. The Cabinet of Ministers and the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) are undertaking procedures to ensure Boyuk Bahmanli is free of mines.

The Ministry of Education intends to furnish the school and leverage additional resources for math skills curriculum development. The Municipality of Boyuk Bahmanli intends to engage the community in overall efforts to improve children's education, which will include ensuring the school premises is ready for reconstruction and facilitating the sanitary and hygiene inspection.

Counterpart will also establish community-based Education Committees (ECs) in each municipal council. These committees will ensure the right needs are met during rehabilitation; provide for the involvement of women on community issues; develop citizen engagement plans to respond to children's education needs; and liaise with the NAC on programmatic progress.

Counterpart will design and support the implementation of an early childhood development (ECD) program. The goal of this task will be to create a secure and safe environment in which children, especially girls under the age of 6, can grow and learn new skills in compliance with the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) standards. The program will be based on learning-through-play and include life lessons on the importance of physical activity, proper nutrition and good hygiene. Each kindergarten will receive sports equipment to reinforce the learning-through-play approach.

Training courses on the ECD program will be provided to kindergarten teachers from the targeted IDP communities. Participants will receive instruction manuals and engage in interactive workshops. After the training the teachers will be expected to use the ECD program in their work with the children. The ECs will monitor program implementation in the targeted kindergartens.

Photos: (top) Exterior of Boyuk Bahmanli kindergarten © Counterpart International(bottom) Kindergarten children at Boarding House for the Deaf and Mute © Counterpart International