Exchange Experience Helps NGO Strengthen Youth Programs
Young people in Sheki, Azerbaijan can access business opportunities through a youth entrepreneurship initiative run by Uluchay Charitable Society, a local nongovernmental organization (NGO). The organization’s development director, Ilyas Safarli, is an alumnus of USAID’s Community Connections program, which organizes professional and cultural exchanges that encourage public-private partnerships, provide professional exposure to day-to-day functions of the American business environment, and creates links between the U. S. and Azerbaijani regions and communities.
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| Community Connections alumnus Ilyas Safarli provides hands-on business training for youth in Sheki- Youth Business Initiative training in Sheki |
As a participant with a CC Youth and Amateur Sports and Interest-based Associations exchange, Safarli learned how US organizations conduct youth business initiatives in their communities. He came away from the experience deeply impressed by the impact of hands-on learning, and returned to Sheki with plans to incorporate more real-world practices into his organization’s programming.
In October 2007, Safarli received a grant from Eurasia Foundation to begin a project which will teach 25 youth, ages 18 to 30, the basics of business planning, research and development, management, accounting, and marketing. After their training, the participants will complete business plans for evaluation by local authorities, banks, media representatives, and local and international NGOs. The best business plans are awarded start-up capital to begin their businesses.
Safarli credits his inspiration in part to his visit to Junior Achievement (JA) Enterprise Village in San Diego, California where he was introduced to their economics and business school and the idea of a business campus in which youth learn by doing. He liked JA’s method of “less training more practice,” which Safarli included in his own work. After his return to Azerbaijan, Safarli set out to create an atmosphere where youth founded their own companies and were able to run them–even negotiating with vendors and producers.
“I saw a marked change in the youth attitude toward our project,” he noted. Safali believes that participants’ enthusiasm has grown as their hands-on efforts have yielded real-life results and knowledge that they can use in the future. Safarli remarked, “The youth experience will help them when they run their own businesses someday.”
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