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HUMANITARIAN
INFORMATION ANALYTICAL AGENCY "SANIYA"
Baku, N,Narimanov str.126, Tel../Fax (99412) 954 411 (99450)
317- 38-25,
312-07-25, E-mail: saniyacin@azdata.net
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SANIYA
The Humanitarian Information Analytical Agency (SANIYA) was founded on 15 June
1994. It is one of the first non-profit, humanitarian organisations 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
organisations. 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.
In pursuing these activities, SANIYA has developed relations with national
and local media, governmental and non-governmental organisations, UNHCR, UNDP,
International Organisation 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 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 the 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;
- report 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 organisations 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 organising 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 improve their skills and experience, including:
- analysis and control of the migration process in the Caucasian countries
provided by the International Organisation on Migration (Azerbaijan);
- management of non-governmental organisations, 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.
Humanitarian Information Analitycal Agency "SANIYA"
Elchin Sardarov
Director
February 2002
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