IDP Community in Azerbaijan Learns New Skill Set and Launches Successful Business

ACDI/VOCA's Central Area Economic Opportunites Project (2000-2002) directly benefited people like Shamama Mirzayeva, a former chief accountant for a health spa, who was displaced in March 1992 as a result of conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. She and others fled their village on foot and moved from one town to the next until the violence pushed them to Hassangaya, a rural, sparsely populated area in northwestern Azerbaijan.

“We didn’t have water or food, or a place to sleep – not a thing,” Mirzayeva said. The hardships were too much for some, and many died in Hassangaya. Soon, however, relief organizations arrived and provided the group with blankets and food. Starting from scratch they built a makeshift community of mud brick homes, dirt yards and donated scraps. Mirzayeva waited for an opportunity to become self-reliant again. It came when ACDI/VOCA dsitributed vegetable seeds, tools and training in vegetable production and preservation to the IDPs of Hassangaya.

“All we needed was to learn some new skills,” says Mirzayeva. “ACDI/VOCA helped us to build a business from nothing.”

Before long the community was growing and processing tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to sell to local restaurants and wedding parties. Through ACDI/VOCA, Mirzayeva received additional training in finance and business management, as well as marketing and packaging. In 2000 the Hassangaya community submitted a business proposal to ACDI/VOCA and received an interest-free loan that enabled them to build a facility for vegetable preservation. The building was equipped with a washing station and machinery for canning and sealing. Previously, all preservation was done by hand.

In 1999 the business paid each employee $1,177 dollars and an additional $353 to the families that lost a loved one in the conflict. After salaries were distributed and expenses paid, $424 remained for reinvestment. In 2001 the Hassangaya group, in conjunction with 10 other CEO- developed processing facilities, produced over 50,000 jars of food worth $33,000. Using the profits from her food preservation venture Mirzayeva and the Hansangaya community invested in chickens, cattle and sheep. Selling the raw wool for processing, using the cattle for milk and cheese, and selling the eggs from their chickens, the Hasangaya community has leveraged CEO business and marketing training to create new enterprises. These new enterprises in turn have helped to generate the profits necessary to purchase a barn, a pump for a nearby well, a water tank and a building that has become a local medical clinic meeting for the IDPs in Hasangaya and the surrounding community.

Mirzayeva refers to the lessons she has learned from ACDI/VOCA as “survival skills.” These skills have helped her community not only to survive but also to flourish. Of her community’s future prospects, Mirzoyeva said, “If we continue at the rate we are going, our business will grow, and one day we will live like we did before.”