The Hamam - bath house

The Hamam offers an opportunity to kick back and relax.....

You walk into a reception area with group changing cubicles and a table where you can sit, drink tea and chat with other customers sat in towels. Once changed you enter a large room with a giant plunge pool full of freezing water and surrounded by massage tables with men being washed, there is a wet and dry sauna and a room where you could get massaged.

After a few rotations between the sauna's and the plunge pool, it was time for my wash! A nice Azeri guy showed me to a massage table for my 'treatment', a thorough clean ensued! Starting by scrubbing me top to toe with what can only be described as a brillo glove followed up by a top to toe soap sud wash. Its actually quite pleasant and i'm not sure I've ever been so clean!

All in all this all male affair is a must. Sorry no pictures!

Financial Distribution to Refugees in Azerbaijan

Save the Children has been the partner organization to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for 2 years, part of Save the Children’s role is to distribute financial aid to the refugee population in Azerbaijan of 2,300 people.
For political reasons the majority of refugees in Azerbaijan have no legal status and no right to work, they therefore rely heavily on financial aid from the UNHCR. 4 days a month from 9am to 4pm Fuad (Driver and Project Assistant) and Dr Sveta (Social Worker) from Save the Children distribute money to the refugee population from foreign countries living in Baku. The majority of the refugees are Russian of Chechen ethnicity, with the remainder from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Moldova.
Each morning a cheque from Save the Children is taken to the bank and cashed, the money is then transported in a Save the Children vehicle to the aid distribution centre a small room rented from the Red Crescent Society.

Right: As a refugee to claim your financial assistance you approach the distribution centre where there is a guard stood outside, draw up to a small bared window in a large metal door and pass your UNHCR Protection letter to be checked, you sign a register and receive your money.
The UNHCR Protection letter, an A4 sheet of paper with your UN registration number and photographs of your family maybe your only documentation.

Left: Mustafa the guard is hired from a non-governmental security company, Save the Children would like to hire a Policeman but that would cost 3 times as much as the guard from the non-governmental security company ( In picture: Elshad is covering Mustafa whilst he is on annual leave).

The amount of financial aid you receive depends on many things; Chechen refugees are ‘officially recognized’ by the UN in Azerbaijan and receive 40AZN (£36) for the first adult in a family, where as all other refugees are classed as ‘persons of concern’ and receive 35AZN (£32) for the first adult in a family. Then depending on the size of your family, disabilities and health the amount of aid you receive increases.

"I saw a family of 7 people – mother, father, 4 children and a grandmother receive 130AZN (£103) per month for renting accommodation and food – everything!"

Chechen woman try to supplement this money by returning to Chechnya and returning with food and other goods for sale, the men are unable to return to Chechnya for fear of imprisonment or even death, they also try and supplement their income through illegal work in construction a dangerous and poorly paid profession in Azerbaijan.

Dr Sveta and Fuad

The main donor for the financial distribution is the European Commission Humanitarian Aid, through which there is secure funding until the end of this year. UNHCR is currently seeking new funding for 2011.

Problems at the financial aid distribution vary from non family members trying to collect money for people who are out of the country, this can sometimes be difficult as women can wear a head scarf making it difficult to recognize them, fortunately Dr Sweta has worked on this project for 8 years and knows most of the refugees faces, other more trivial problems include one refugee who suffers from claustrophobia and cannot look through the small window to collect her money as it makes her feel like she is in prison and insists on entering the office to collect her aid.

The distribution although by no means secure, is much better now the metal door has been in place since 2009, previously the refugees would enter the room and receive their financial aid across a desk.

The height of the window is specially designed for Fuad to sit at and Dr Sveta to stand!

Alternatives to the distribution centre to improve security have been sort:
- Use of Finance cards to withdraw the aid from a bank is not possible due to the legal status of the refugees.
- Alternative secure facilities such as in a money exchange have proved too expensive.
- Even secure delivery of the money each day from the bank is restricted by cost.
As you can see, there are real financial restrictions placed upon this project and everything is tightly controlled within a budget.

Many thanks to Dr Sveta, Fuad and Elshad for hosting me and sharing some of their work supporting refugees in Azerbaijan.

Baku photo exhibition

A local photographer held an exhibition in part of the old city of Baku and I was asked if I would like to go along. I met the photographer who kindly walked me through the exhibition and introduced me to her 2 auntie's. Here is one of my pictures of the photographer!

Yanar Dag - Fire mountain

Driving home from the beach where I’ve been with some of my new colleagues for a swim in the sea and barbecue in the sand (sorry no pictures). It’s about 9 o'clock at night and just getting dark, we pull into a shoddy looking car park to see Yanar Dag?

Yanar Dag or the "Fire Mountain", is a naturally occurring and visually stunning fire which blazes continuously, flames shoot into the air from a layer of stone at the base of a hillside.

Azerbaijan has long been known as the 'Land of Fire' and just outside Baku you can see why.

Yes it’s as hot as it looks!

Azerbaijan is famous for its oil and gas reserves. There is such a large concentration of natural gas under the ground hear, that it seeps through porous rocks and burns on the surface!

Arriving in Azerbaijan…

I arrived at Heathrow airport wondering if I would have everything I might need… only time will tell? Usual check in 30kg of luggage - only 10kg over the weight limit, not to bad everything for 6 months? £170 charge not so good!

It’s actually very easy to fly to the Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, there is a flight most days with BMI or AZAL (Azerbaijan Airways), I’m flying BMI! But for a relatively short 5½ hour economy flight £940 is a bit steep. The take off was delayed but time soon flew past with the usual naff food and inflight entertainment. The flight was ¾ empty with all the other passengers seemingly oil workers from Scotland or the North of England.

I arrived in Baku at midnight, first impression - Hot + sticky!

Entering Azerbaijan if quite easy you mostly require patients, passport stamped and off to another queue to get a 31 day VISA (you need a letter of introduction, 2 passport photos and $100).

Updated 12 month humanitarian VISA - there letting me stay!

A company driver Fikret collected me and drove straight to the Empire Hotel.

Fikret dosn’t speak much English so an excellent opportunity to practice my Russian:

Me “How is the temperature?"

Fikret “Normal”

OK, its a start!

During the drive I felt like a secret agent, a strange Russian man handed over a phone and an envelope with my name on it… inside was a note to say “here is your SIM, you will be picked up at 8.45 call if you have problems” I thank him, he grunts and that is that!

The hotel is expecting me - few! More later…

What will I be doing in Azerbaijan?

My PULSE assignment is volunteering to work with Save the Children in Azerbaijan. Below is the Role Description, I will learn more about the role when I arrive in Azerbaijan next week!

PULSE Assignment - Training and Business Development Support in Azerbaijan

The Save the Children Country Office in Azerbaijan is interested in identifying a Training and/or Business Development professional to work with the country team to transform existing education and child protection products (for children) into a series of trainings which can be offered to potential donors.

As competition for limited resources continues to increase in Azerbaijan, SC needs to differentiate itself from competitors and developing useful products to “sell” to potential private sector funders is a proactive way to achieve sustained presence.

Initially, the trainings will be used for staff internally to promote the “One Team for Children in Azerbaijan”, an idea which directly emerged from previous, and first, PULSE volunteer. In addition to trainings, the PULSE Volunteer will work to develop training capacity of staff and lead efforts to develop better business practices and procedures for optimizing resources such as time, increasing efficiency while maintaining effectiveness.

• Work cross functionally and collaboratively to develop innovative strategies and products for resource mobilization.

• Identify and arrange and/or deliver suitable training solutions for employees.

• Conduct follow-up studies of completed training to evaluate and measure results.

• Actively search, creatively design and implement effective methods to educate and enhance performance.

Where is Azerbaijan?

When I first looked at volunteering in Azerbaijan like many of my friends and colleagues I had to ask myself - Where is Azerbaijan?

Well, Azerbaijan is in Europe in the Caucasus.

With an east coast on the Caspian Sea. It borders Russia on the north, Georgia and Armenia on the west, and Iran on the south.

I hope to tell you more about Azerbaijan the country, its people and my volunteering with Save the Children over the coming months of my PULSE assignment.