The Covid-19 pandemic took the world by surprise and youth organisations had to adapt, all over the world. How are European youth organisations coping with this crisis? Here are the stories of some of our member organisations, our way of documenting this common page in our History, and mapping samples of the impact this pandemic had on youth work throughout Europe!
“Common Sense” Youth Organisation
Azerbaijan
“Common Sense” Youth Organisation (CSYO) was founded by a group of young people in the city of Sumgait, Azerbaijan. Its aim is to raise awareness among young people on active citizenship, healthy lifestyle, environmental awareness, human rights and equality, peace building and conflict prevention.
In Azerbaijan, sanitary measures included: the closing of educational institutions, prohibition of gatherings of 10 or more people, closing of air and land borders, suspension of public events, regional and long-distance transport…
A first quarantine of 2 months was ordered. It was lifted as cases were decreasing and fewer restrictions were asked from the people. Only 2-3 weeks later, a second wave of Covid-19 led the government to order another strict quarantine, announced at the time to last until the 20th of July.
Orkhan Bayramov, project manager at CSYO, and Amina Abdullayeva, board member of CSYO, and Ramiz Aliyev, board member of CSYO and president of Youth Express Network, both took the time to answer our questions and share with us the impact of the Covid-19 quarantine on the organisation.
Reorganising youth work
During the first quarantine, CSYO’s team had to work online. From the projects that were supposed to take place during this period, 3 Erasmus+ projects were postponed to next year and 1 local project was adapted to the online format.
This change of dynamic also presented an opportunity to focus on internal NGO work such as redesigning their website and exploring new digital tools for youth work.
Sharing tips through live streams
Online seminars, and trainings were also developed to cover the quarantine period. Once a week, youth workers held Zoom meetings and live streams to share their experience on youth-work-related topics such as writing international and local projects, Erasmus+ funding and the European Solidarity Corps, budget management…
Social media campaign on healthy lifestyle
One of the main aim of CSYO is to promote healthy lifestyle to young people, and the organisation has been particularly active in raising awareness on the risks linked to smoking. During this Covid-19 quarantine, CSYO conducted a wide no-smoking campaign on their social media, campaign which included a live interview with a doctor specialised on this topic.
Managing foreign volunteers
Because of the closing of air borders, one of the main challenges of CSYO was to manage the individual situations of their European volunteers unable to return to their home countries. 1 foreign volunteer in Azerbaijan had her embassy organise her flight home on the 18th of May. From their 27 Azerbaijanis volunteers spread over 12 European countries, 7 of them had finished they European volunteering but were unable to go home. To help them overcome this stressful situation, CSYO supported them from afar, staying in contact with them 24/7. Through a Whatsapp group and regular video meetings, the volunteers were able to chat with each other, support each other and share on their experience.
Online voting
CSYO is now preparing for online board elections which will be held on the 15th of August. It will be their first online election experience.
SOMETHING POSITIVE
