USAID Hands Over Children and Family Support Centers to Azerbaijan
On July 9, 2007, a signing ceremony transferred the USAID-supported Shulevan Children and Family Support Center from Save the Children to the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues of the Azerbaijan Republic. This transfer continues the cooperation between the government and the project to ensure the permanence of the Center, which provides unique support for vulnerable families and children.
The Shulevan Children and Family Support Center is one of three centers supported by USAID and implemented by Save the Children Federation in partnership with United Aid for Azerbaijan within the Community-based Children’s Support Program. Launched in October 2004, the Community-based Children’s Support Program promotes the full integration of vulnerable children into society and develops community capacity to care for these children in three areas of Azerbaijan–Mingechevir, Goranboy, and Shuvelan. Providing community development activities, family supports services, and children’s services, the centers aim to prevent factors that lead to institutionalization and facilitate the children’s return to their families.
Through center activities, the project aspires to demonstrate community-based alternatives for institutional care that are included within the overall government program for de-institutionalization and alternative care. Joining together, Save the Children and the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues implement various projects that address children’s issues. In order for the centers to continue to provide support to the communities they serve, Save the Children is transferring all three centers to the Azerbaijan Government to initiate their involvement with alternative methods of social assistance to children as exemplified in the centers. Operation of the Goranboy Center was handed over in mid-July.
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| Hijran Hajiyeva and Geof Giacomini gave congratulatory speeches and signed handover documents at the event |
Opening the Shulevan ceremony, Hijran Hajiyeva, Chairwoman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues, made a congratulatory speech for this occasion, noting that the establishment and handover of these centers is an important step towards the support and protection of vulnerable children within the implementation of the State program on De-institutionalization and Alternative Care.
Save the Children’s Country Office Director, Geof Giacomini, emphasized the critical roles of the center towards deinstitutionalization. Giacomini specifically underlined that the handover did not imply program completion, but rather the beginning of a close cooperation between the State Committee, NGOs and other government agencies toward creating and improving new alternative support services for vulnerable families and children.
The Deputy Head of the local Executive Committee, Alakbar Heydarov, also expressed that body’s support to the Shuvelan Children and Family Support Center and his hope that similar centers can be established by the State Committee in the future.
Joining in with congratulations for the handover, the President of the Union of Azerbaijani and Turkish Businessmen (ATIB), Ahmad Erentok emphasized recent achievements the State Committee has achieved—including the Shulevan handover—within the short time since its inception.
Ilham Mammadov and Lala Abbasova, Parliament Members; Hanaa Singer, UNICEF Azerbaijan Representative; Sevinj Hasanova, Deputy Minister of Economic Development; Adam Onal, Baku-Turkish Private Lyceum Director, Representatives of Embassy of Turkey, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, Cabinet of Ministers and National Research Center, UNFPA and USAID representatives, and other local government officials were present for the signing ceremony. Representatives of the local centers such as Rainbow, the Dajallar Association of People with Downs Syndrome, and Place of Hope also attended the event.
After the opening speeches were made, children benefiting from the Shulevan Center recited poems, and performed dances and songs to the delight of those gathered. Guests were given the opportunity to tour the Center and observe typical daily activities.
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