“I travelled in the Caucasus several years ago and saw Azerbaijani territory from Georgia but did not have the opportunity to actually set foot in the country. This time, I made it to the capital city, Baku, and spent 10 days delivering a training of trainers on children’s rights to a local multi-disciplinary group through a UNICEF project.

As I started the training, I was pleasantly surprised by the high level of knowledge and awareness of children’s rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ample experience in facilitating trainings of the participants. This training, apart from discussing substantive children’s rights, served as a forum for everyone involved to learn from each other based on our respective expertise. It was a unique opportunity to share skills from social workers, psychologists, human rights officers, doctors and lawyers and apply them on our daily lives.

These highly-skilled participants will train teenagers on their rights and provide practical information to parents and the general public to promote the implementation of children’s rights, starting at home. As I left Baku and crossed a bridge fitted with red stars remaining from the Soviet Union times flanked by ultra-modern buildings, I cherished this opportunity to teach, learn and discover.”