"SANIYA" MISSION
Humanitarian Informational Analytical Agency "SANIYA" is one of the first non-profit, humanitarian organizations in Azerbaijan which collects and disseminates information and analysis on humanitarian, ecological and social issues from sources such as the media, the bulletins of non-governmental organizations. SANIYA also promotes the development of NGO networks and networks between NGOs and the media.
It is one of the first non-profit, humanitarian organizations in Azerbaijan which collects and disseminates information and analysis on humanitarian, ecological and social issues from sources such as the media, the bulletins of non-governmental organizations. SANIYA also promotes the development of NGO networks and networks between NGOs and the media.
It is, in fact, the co-founder of the Network for Civil Information on Ecological and Social Issues which has 15 NGOs and 12 representatives of national press.
SANIYA is the co-founder of the Social Environmental Forum of Azerbaijan ("SEFA") and Forum .of Azerbaijan NGOs on migration ("FANGOM").
In pursuing these activities, SANIYA has developed relations with national and local media, governmental and non-governmental organizations, UNHCR, UNDP, International Organization on Migration, the World Bank, TACIS, CENN, ISAR, Fund Gorizonti (Georgia), Oxfam, INTERNEWS and the Embassies of the UK and the USA in Azerbaijan.
THE SERVICES PROVIDED BY SANIYA
INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:
- Collection and distribution of information about social issues, legal and social help for the vulnerable groups in mass media and NGO bulletins and in consultation sessions with the members of the public and the vulnerable groups;
- Preparation and distribution of the Social - Environmental newspaper SANIYA;
- Preparation and distribution of Briefing notes and Newsletters on social and environmental issues;
- Conducting consultation exercises with the public and the mass media on the issues of social protection;
- Preparation and implementation of Training courses for journalists, new NGOs, students and schoolchildren on ecological issues; and develop the NGO network.
THE FOLLOWING ARE SOME OF EXAMPLES
OF SANIYA's WORK TO DATE:
- Articles in the national and international press about the problems of the vulnerable groups such as refugees, internally displaced people, families whose members died in the war with Armenia, war veterans, the old and the disabled;
- Reports for UNHCR and UNDP on the state of the refugees and the impacts of the natural disasters on the population;
- Reports and SANIYA bulletins on the environmental problems of the Caspian Sea and Kura and Araz Rivers funded by TACIS programme of the European Union;
- Report on the unemployment problem in Azerbaijan;
- Dissemination of legal information and legal advice to the vulnerable groups through publications and expert consultation with respect to the rights of the refugees, rights of employment and social protection;
- Preparation and dissemination of a Newsletter called 'The Refugees in Azerbaijan' in co-operation with the US NGO ISAR;
- A seminar on the role of information for the training of refugees and internally displaced persons for future employment;
- Working groups of organizations involved in providing social services to the public with the aim of improving such provisions;
- Community consultation and survey study in order to determine the income support and social service needs of the vulnerable groups in the society financed by OXFAM;
- Medical - educational visits by experts to the local communities in Baku, Sumgayit and Barda aimed at the children of refugees and other vulnerable groups with an emphasis on information campaign about AIDS with support from the British Embassy in Azerbaijan;
- Development of charitable actions in support of women, the disabled, the orphans and internally displaced persons in Lachin zone of Agdjabey region which provided the population with timely help from national and international organisation during winter time;
- Co-ordinator of an international conference on the development of NGOs and resolution of conflicts in the Caucasus held in Baku and organizing within the framework of the Geneva Conference of the CIS;
- Design and implementation of focus groups with over 1000 participants in four regions of Azerbaijan in order to gather socio-economic information about the rural population, assess their use of natural resources and the problems they encountered in doing so and gather public opinion about the various proposals for the economic development of their respective regions as input to the poverty - environment work within the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper sponsored by the UK Department for International Development and the World Bank.
THE MEMBERS OF SANIYA HAS PARTICIPATED IN A NUMBER OF TRAINING EVENTS , TO IMROVE THEIR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE, INCLUDING:
- Analysis and control of the migration process in the Caucasian countries provided by the International Organization on Migration (Azerbaijan);
- Management of non-governmental organizations, provision of consulting services, facilitation of public meetings and focus groups provided by ISAR (Azerbaijan);
- Strategic planning and human rights provided by UNHCR (Washington DC);
- Civil society, human rights and the problems of immigration in Europe provided by the Institute of Social and European Research (Hungary);
- Environmental journalism provided by BBC - MPM;
- Interactive studies and seminars provided by TACIS and TEAP, and a number of conferences and seminars on the problems of the refugees and internally displaced people in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and Hungary.
- Civil Society involvement in PRSP provided by World Bank