Internet Access and Training Program (IATP)

Participants of Web conference on World
No-Tobacco Day from Baku, Azerbaijan
discuss topic anti-smoking campaign with
counterparts in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on
May 31.

In May IATP engaged in wide variety of activities aimed at youth development such as healthy lifestyle campaigns, conflict mitigation seminars and labor rights workshops.

Young people across Eurasia discussed the influence of the media on teenagers, issues of self-esteem and other psychological questions. More than 50 adolescents in Turkmenistan took part in an interactive intellectual competition and used their teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. Representatives of youth organizations throughout Eurasia created websites for their own organizations after taking web design courses at IATP centers.

• Armenian college students developed a student council website thanks to IATP courses. Throughout April, 36 students of State Engineering College’s (SEC) branch in Gyumri, Armenia attended IATP courses, including computer and Internet basics, and Web design, to develop their Student Council’s website. On May 2, the participants posted the official website of the SEC’s Gyumri branch Student Council. One section of the website allows students running for Student Council President to describe their platforms and campaign online. Another section connects students to national politics, allowing them to participate in a mock parliamentary election and have their votes counted. Over 1,000 students participated in both elections, out of a total student body of 1,200, and the results were posted online. Vlad Shatverov and Gharib Hovhannisyan, both seniors majoring in Information Technology, became the Student Council President and Vice President. In the mock election, the majority of students voted for Prosperous Armenia, the country’s centrist political party, which matched with the official parliamentary results in Armenia. In addition to helping the students express their views and preferences towards country’s political parties and urging active participation in the country’s decision making processes, the website also encouraged students to be actively involved in college life, share educational materials, and join college activities designed to develop students both academically and professionally.

• Throughout May, IATP, in cooperation with the local nongovernmental organization Center of Independent Research ELS, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan conducted a month-long anti-tobacco campaign, entitled “Don’t Say No to Your Health, Future, and Prosperity”, dedicated to World No-Tobacco Day marked on May 31. The campaign aimed to promote healthy lifestyles and strengthen the fight against smoking among youth.

Young people from Ganja paticipate in
an international forum, entitled "Youth
Against or For Smoking?" held from
May 4 to 31.

• Ten members of the Azerbaijan Young Liberal Youth Association (ALYA) created seven new websites after completing a Web design course conducted at the IATP center in Baku, Azerbaijan from May 1 to 15. IATP Center Administrator Azer Kerimov taught the trainees how to create and edit Web pages, add links, optimize images for the Web, create a user-friendly layout, and post resources to a server, helping the young people acquire a new outlet for creative expression. The new Web resources are devoted to a wide range of topics, including the Azerbaijan Youth Tourism Club, the Department of Turkish World Management at Azerbaijan State Economics University), and a website dedicated to human rights issues.

• Youth from across Azerbaijan discussed conflict mitigation issues with students of the University of Nebraska in Omaha (UNO) in an online forum conducted from April 16 to 25. The participants exchanged opinions about conflicts around the world, including the situation in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Middle East, and Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict, discussed the roots of the conflict and possible outcomes, shared views on the best ways to mitigate them, and exchanged ideas on how to involve youth in making positive changes.

• Throughout April, eighteen members of the Azerbaijan Young Lawyers Union (AYLU) and the Azerbaijan Young Liberal Youth Association (ALYA) acquired skills in computer use, spreadsheet calculation, Internet use, and photo editing at the IATP center in Baku, Azerbaijan. ALYA Coordinator Tural Mammadov commented, “Thanks to IATP training, we now have the necessary skills to create our organization’s website and other useful Web resources that can help promote our mission and goals in the growing online community.”

IATP Center Administrator Edik
Ehtibaryan (left) and center volunteer Siranush
Yarmaloyan (center) help young activists
explore the Web at the IATP center in
Spitak, Armenia

• Youth leaders of Spitak, Armenia acquired new computer skills to effectively establish partnerships and share best practices in running various projects with other youth organizations from Armenia and other countries. On May 7 at the IATP center in Spitak, Siranush Yarmaloyan (FLEX 03) and IATP Administrator Edik Ehtibaryan introduced twelve leaders of youth nonprofit organizations to tips on establishing contact with funders, use of online forums to exchange ideas with Armenian and foreign counterparts, and the importance of building collaboration with potential partner organizations. Thanks to the workshop, the participants established partnerships with three other Armenian youth organizations, compiled a list of donor organizations, and collected materials on grant proposal writing tips and techniques. Satenik Aharonyan, a staff of Shoger, a local youth organization, remarked, "Now I realize how things can change in one day, there is a need for me to be updated daily and build new partnership contacts using my acquired skills and knowledge."
• Twenty seven residents of Belarus, Armenia, and Azerbaijan voiced their concerns, offered feedback, and became informed about the problem of support and fostering of abandoned children, their adoption and life in foster families, and discussed how to involve mass media in wider coverage of the problem of orphans in their countries through an online forum entitled, "Social Orphans: Return to Families" sponsored by IATP on May 15. 

• Young people discussed the influence of the media on teenagers on May 4 in an online conference initiated by Irina Betsianu, an intern based at the IATP Training Laboratory in Chisinau, Moldova. Professor Zinaida Bolea, a psychologist from Moldova State University, was the guest speaker of this online conference, which brought together 35 local university students and participants in the Tech Age Girls (TAG) project from Chisinau, Causeni, Soroca, and Ungheni. The participants tried to analyze how an image of “ideal beauty” promoted by the media influences teenagers, which can in turn lead to eating disorders. They also discussed ways to prevent such negative consequences. Andrei Schendra from Ungheni remarked, “I do not think that an idea of beauty is something that can be imposed or promoted by somebody. Every person has his/her own opinion about an ideal and what it represents.”

Tatiana Bacalim explains labor rights to
the TAG participants

• On May 7, the IATP Training Laboratory in Chisinau, Moldova, sponsored a seminar on labor rights protection for eight schoolchildren. One of the problems that Moldova faces as a post-Soviet republic without a tradition of the rule of law is low compliance with the requirements of the Labor Code on the part of employers. The aim of the seminar was to help the schoolchildren gain a better understanding of their rights before they enter the labor force, so that they can be an influence for positive change and stand up for their rights. Tatiana Bacalim, a volunteer from La Strada - an NGO working for trafficking prevention – discussed the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees. She demonstrated Moldovan laws on employee rights protection, in particular, the Labor Code, and explained where to complain about violations of these rights. Later, the participants discussed opportunities to gain legal employment in their country. By sponsoring this event, IATP educated schoolchildren in protecting their rights and encouraged the participants to seek a legal job in their country.

• Fourteen students from various high schools learned to cope with their environments during a two-hour seminar “Do we have a self-esteem?” at the IATP center in Mary. On May 10, Gulnara Yoldasheva, a teacher at School No. 13 and IATP user and trainee since 2005, conducted the seminar. She developed her materials from online sources, because the subject is not covered adequately by books in Turkmenistan. Using 20 years of educational experience, including five years as a school psychologist, she guided students to develop a positive self-rating, independent point of view, and understand the importance of moral norms. Students used online psychological tests to rate their self-confidence and other psychological issues (http://testonline.webservis.ru/test/test6/index.php, http://vsetesti.ru/33/, and http://www.mytests.ru/tests). It led to a fruitful discussion about child-parent relationships, Turkmen family traditions, and how to communicate at home.

Participants of the seminar take online
tests

• More than 50 adolescents in Turkmenabat took part in a two-hour interactive intellectual competition in IATP center and used their teamwork, leadership, and communication skills.  On May 7, American Corner and IATP center volunteers organized the popular intellectual game Brain Ring for teams represented by international and Turkmen NGOs, such as Counterpart and Red Crescent Society. The game organizers prepared questions chosen from the Internet in advance. “We spent long hours searching the Internet for interesting and tricky questions,” remarked Ksenia Shubina, a volunteer for Counterpart. Access to the Internet and advanced online search training provided by IATP to the contest organizers was a key to the contest’s success.