Baku, July 16, AZERTAC

BP on behalf of its co-venturers in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Shah Deniz, and South Caucasus Pipeline projects - SOCAR, TPAO, PETRONAS, MOL, LUKOIL, NICO, Equinor, INPEX, ExxonMobil, SGC, ITOCHU, ONGC, TOTAL, Eni - today announced successful completion of three community development projects along the BP-operated export pipelines. The total value of the projects is around 900,000 AZN, BP Azerbaijan told AZERTAC.

The one-year project in Tovuz was aimed to support the development of micro-entrepreneurial skills and capabilities of rural women, as well as to enhance their self-employment opportunities. The project has provided development opportunities to a total of 60 women from low income and vulnerable families. They received specific trainings to improve their skills to manage their own small businesses and were provided with necessary equipment to launch micro-level income generation activities as tailors, hairdressers, pastry cooks, beekeepers and mill runners.

The project which aimed to support inclusive education efforts in Tovuz and Aghstafa districts provided upskilling opportunities for 300 school and pre-school teachers - 200 in Tovuz and 100 in Aghstafa. They received trainings on 10 inclusive education related themes and were provided with five new learning materials which were developed as part of the project by local experts. These included practical recommendations for organization of the learning process in the inclusive education environment. In addition, as part of the project modern inclusive education literature - national and international, has been donated to the Inclusive Education Centre in Tovuz.

The final stage of BP and its co-venturers’ community infrastructure improvement project resulted in the refurbishment of three kindergartens - for a total of 200 children - in the Hajigabul and Kurdamir districts - one in Hajigabul and two in Kurdamir. This completes the 5-year programme with a total cost of more than two million AZN aimed at improving social infrastructure in the communities living in the neighbourhoods of BP and co-venturers’ projects and activities. Overall, 14 kindergartens have been refurbished and upgraded in the neighbouring communities since 2016 when this major social infrastructure programme first started.

A group of BP and co-venturer companies’ representatives visited Tovuz, Samukh (the Sweet Gold project), Yevlakh (the Build Your Future project) and Kurdamir districts on 14-15 July to see firsthand the sustainable results of the social investment initiatives implemented in the neighbouring communities.