If asked where they lived, every one of the 100 teenagers crowding at a photo exhibition   the Baku Center of Contemporary Art on November 18, would say “in neighborhood with oil”.  The exhibition “ Look!…I live in Neighborhood with Oil” was the final product of a small grant project funded from  the World Bank’s Civil Society Fund (CSF) jointly with the Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR)   and implemented by 

                                               the EcoSfera NGO.

The story started back in May when Firuza Sultan-zade,  Director of EcoSfera,   got the news that that her project was a winner of the 2008  CSF, which she rushed to take to her kids, students of three high schools located in three most oil- polluted districts embracing the capital city Baku -  Surakhani (Gala), Bibi-Heybat and Balakhani. Not only the children, but also their parents and teachers could not wait to see when their hope for attracting attention to their bitter environmental problems and their everlasting wish to tell the world about them start materialize. 

One hundred years of neglect turned these places into a gloomy looking and environmentally unfriendly world of glazy oil lakes and rusty metal rigs. Now Firuza and her team had a challenge ahead – one hundred children living in the three settlements were to be trained on how to deal with the pollution around their homes and how they, members of the community, could be contributive to the clean-up processes started by the government of Azerbaijan and supported by the World Bank through the $164m worth Absheron Rehabilitation Program.  

To make the learning process a fun and also create incentives and new opportunities, EcoSfera gave the students simple cameras and trained them in photography.  The task was to take pictures of what people’s lives were about in Gala, Balakhani and Bib-Heybat, and of how it feels when your neighborhood is Oil.

The professional jury of photographers confessed later that they had a really hard time when selecting the best pictures – almost all 7,500 shots were so good! However, as a result of tough decisions, 170 pictures were recognized as the best to convey the call for an urgent help and everybody’s participation.

Simple lives and aspirations reflected in 170 pictures through the eyes of 100 kids – this is what the photo exhibition was about. It was also about new prospects opened for the young people who received professional knowledge on environmental hazards and how to fight with them and who learned how to make it for a good photographer.

“In a few years, I am hoping, the places where you live now will become better and beautiful as you all deserve that and you all can help this happen”, said Shigeo Katsu, World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia, to the nine finalists when awarding them at the exhibition together with SOCAR Vice-President, Mukhtar Babayev. In return, he   received a framed poster of the project signed by all its one hundred participants.

“It’s been my dream to learn to do photography” said Ulvi Iskender, the first prize winner from Gala, “but I didn’t have a chance. The project gave it to me. Now I am thinking of becoming a real master. But…”, he thought for a moment and then added “ I would not like to take pictures of  ugly places any more.”