Eurasia Research Project 2009

Over recent years the Trust has been receiving more and more requests for assistance from freelancers working in Russia, the Caucasus and other countries in Eurasia.  

We have been eager to meet that need, but we were also aware that we needed to increase our contacts in the region and find out more about the area’s freelance community and how we could best help potential beneficiaries. So in early 2009, we undertook a four month research project to Eurasia.  

Programme Development Manager Elisabet Cantenys and Researcher Lu Yang travelled to Baku in Azerbaijan, to Moscow in Russia and to Almaty in Kazakhstan where they strengthened the Trust’s existing partnerships with NGOs, built new relationships with local journalists organisations and made contact with media development organisations, media employers and with freelancers themselves – including the family of beneficiary Mushfig Huseynov.

As a result, the Trust has increased its knowledge of the local and national media landscape and the freelance communities who supply them, and we have a better understanding of the hazards and challenges facing freelancers working in this part of the world.  

We continue to work with our new partners to strengthen our presence in the region and reach new freelancers in need – we have provided grants to several new beneficiaries and are researching new cases all the time.  

We will keep you updated on news of our work with partners and beneficiaries in this region as it develops.

The Eurasia Project was funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.