For the year 2022, which is the Year of Youth as declared by the EU, YEE wanted to take the opportunity to bring to the forefront some of the great work our member organizations are doing! Every month, we will be highlighting one of our MOs from all across Europe.
Odlar Yurdu, creating the youth climate movement in Azerbaijan
“Odlar Yurdu” Youth Public Union was founded on June 15, 2012, by a group of young people in Ganja, Azerbaijan. The mission and purpose of our organization is implementation of activities in the field of protection of national and spiritual values, active citizenship, likewise, education and intellectual development, culture, media, environment, sport, and voluntary activities to stimulate the development of the young citizens of Azerbaijan.
More importantly, the international cooperation in the above mentioned fields are our main priority. Many projects that support and empower the ideas of young people have been held by our organization.
About 10,000 young people benefited from various projects and activities as a result of our efforts during 10 years. Overall, the union has been a partner of 26 initiatives in 17 countries (Italy, Norway, Romania, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Germany, Netherlands and others) involving 80 young people. In addition, as a Youth Union, we presented Azerbaijan in 6 different countries, distinct projects. (Belgium, Croatia, Romania, Greece, Turkey, Georgia).
Our target groups are 14-29-year-olds in our region, as well as women and young girls aged 14 to 35 and social groups between the ages of 14 and 29 that require special care. Our Union will have 3 main priorities in the years 2022-2024: international partnership, entrepreneurship and active citizenship!
Odlar Yurdu & YEE – a new and promising member!
“Odlar Yurdu” Youth Public Union joined YEE Network on 26 September 2021. YEE’s missions and the priorities of our organization overlap – the active participation of young people and building international collaboration are key focus areas for both of our organizations. After joining YEE, our understanding and perspective on environment and climate issues started changing.
The best part is that YEE does this by arranging international meetings with organizations from different countries by increasing networking and contributing to intercultural exchanges. We really appreciate YEE’s work on the issues that hold an important place at global level. Europe means mobility for us, YEE in its terms is a door to European values and network. In our opinion, pollution, waste disposal and global warming are the most pressing problems.
2022 – The year of youth and new projects
In terms of international relations, we plan to expand our network and build partnerships based on the organization’s priority and focus areas all over the world, join and get memberships from different international organizations and youth networks; arrange offline and virtual intercultural training, seminars, and events; send and receive volunteers for international projects.
Furthermore, we plan to organize big and small events regarding the entrepreneurship and investment sector for sustainable economic growth, collaborate in this field with local governmental and non-governmental, likewise international organizations. As mentioned above active citizenship will encompass different fields and principles.
We will continue our activities and projects on environmental protection, green environment to help to guard the world we live in and to contribute to sustainable development goals by every means. Furthermore, we plan different events focused on women empowerment, which is also part of the inclusion principle; in addition, we will continue to attract young people from rural areas to different local and international projects to leave no one behind and ensure the reduction of inequalities.
Special thanks to Gunel Abbasova from Odlar Yurdu for providing us with this insight.