A presentation ceremony was held at the National Museum of Azerbaijani History for the results of the Grant Competition announced by the “For Azerbaijan” on February 13.
Elnur Kalantarov, the Program Director of the organization, welcomed the guests and expressed gratitude to the participants on behalf of the “For Azerbaijan” team.
Emil Hasanov, Head of the Baku Representative Office provided an overview of the organization’s activities and the projects carried out to date. A short film highlighting key moments of the organization’s three-year work was also shown to the participants.
Movlan Pashayev, one of the founders and a member of the Advisory Board, informed the guests about the purpose of the grant competition. He stated that 83 projects were submitted, covering 30 cities and districts, including 3 economic regions, with projects focusing on employment/business/career (24 projects), psychosocial support for martyr families and war veterans (16 projects), and education, including girls’ education (21 projects). Additionally, 22 proposals addressed issues such as healthcare accessibility, working with disabled groups, film and book production, drug addiction, youth engagement, and tourism development.
Movlan Pashayev further explained that an independent “Evaluation Commission” was established by the organization to select the winning project. The commission assessed the submitted projects based on 8 evaluation criteria: “completeness of documents,” “organization’s experience,” “future orientation,” “implementation and sustainability,” “budget justification,” “risks,” “beneficiaries,” and “partners.”
At the end of his speech, Mr. Pashayev announced the decision of the commission, which included Fariz Huseynov, a Finance Professor at North Dakota State University; Heydar Abdullayev, Senior Technical Staff Member at Oracle, USA; and Tural Badirkhanlı, CEO of Solidshape. The winning project was announced as the “Girls for Artificial Intelligence: Programs and Training Opportunities for Future Innovators” project by the “Gender Hub” Public Union.
The project has an implementation period of 8 months and a total budget of 26,000 AZN. It will cover cities including Baku, Ganja, Lankaran, and Agstafa, running from June to November.
The project aims to collaborate with experts and organizations from various fields to provide 14-18-year-old girls with education and innovative projects in technical areas such as programming and engineering. The project includes training, mentoring programs, and competitions to organize innovative projects.
Next, Rufat Abbasov, a member of the Advisory Board, spoke about the high evaluation of the “Girls Read” campaign by the “Var Yox Arts and Culture Platform” in terms of its educational and awareness-raising components. He emphasized that a special contract worth 5,000 AZN would be signed to produce and broadcast social videos about girls’ education in the community.
The winners of the competition expressed their gratitude to “For Azerbaijan” and emphasized the importance of the work to be done within the project and the outcomes that will be achieved.
At the end of the event, members of the “For Azerbaijan” Charity Organization answered questions from the guests. The presentation ceremony concluded with musical performances by children.
