A series of articles dedicated to put a spotlight on inspiring organizations and start-ups based in Azerbaijan that aim to bring progressive change to the Azerbaijani society..

Everything started three years ago, between the walls of Baku state University, a university that has given the world quite enough minds to light up the world. In this old university, to which over 20 thousand students come every day, an idea sparked. Three years ago an idea was born that grew to realize itself into a project and an organization. It was a challenge, it was change, it was the beginning to a new phase.

First steps

The obvious, is not always easy to notice. This is a talent that Barama media team had from the very start. Just like many students in Azerbaijan, they felt a shortage of educational content in Azerbaijani on internet. This is how the roller-coaster started, from feeling unpleasant about the present facts, to protest, to brainstorming, ideas, sketching … and Barama media was born.

Barama media was born to fill up all those gaps, an Azerbaijani media platform has put educational, enlightening and quality content its ultimate goal.

"In Azerbaijani Barama means cocoon,
 a cocoon from which sooner or later
 something very beautiful will be born”

Right now, two young journalists from Eurasia Diary are sitting in front of three beautiful women, Pakiza, Afsana and Aynur khanim. Those three women, despite all their differences share  three years of their lives working together side by side. This is the story of BARAMA MEDIA. It would be a pity to say, how much little we knew about Barama media. Yet, it was such a pleasure to learn so much.

The Secret of success 

From the very start the project aimed for one thing. “We aim to put the spotlight on the idea not ourselves” – Says Aynour khanim, the head of Barama media team. The road to success is challenging yet we are overcoming it, with the positive mentality and clearly seeing our targets. Coming to this, there is a lot in the world, around us, that inspires us.  Yet the absence of quality contact for the enlightenment of youth on TV, in other words the little interest in the events happening in this world and many other factors pushed those women to action. Never underestimate a woman in action.

They were able to create simple educational content that was able to grab the interest of many. They picked hot topics in different spheres of life, and recreated the material to  4-10 minute videos, created audio-books, and sketched up for more.

Barama has stayed faithful to traditional media and traditions, bringing the taste of modernization that many in Azerbaijan are eager for. An example to that is a video created by Barama media, that explains in less than 10 minutes the concept of Bitcoin*. Once published, it became the first content explaining the Bitcion in Azerbaijani language.

Since Barama media is targeting the Azerbaijani audience, and especially the Azerbaijani youth, our first question in this matter was : “Why isn’t there much initiatives in Azerbaijan by the youth, what is that they need to be triggered.”

“Curiosity … you understand, for the last decade,  a new generation appeared, the generation of “Chaikhana”. Their conversations evolve around daily common news, and tend to have a very primitive character” For the ears of two students, this was a description to what we saw once entering the university, our hopes were not justified, the interest to knowledge, creativity, and work was buried somewhere deep in  the eyes in our friends.

“Youth has to give us..
it is not us giving youth” 

Although Barama media team is made up of young students studying journalism ,content quality was important. It came with hard work, trying to maneuver the new trend of fake news; once starting to a new research, information had to be checked at least three different places. They also payed attention to different trends from Russia , Turkey, Europe.. Ect.

“Youth has to give us.. it is not us giving youth” was the answer to the question of how could the government and the society ease the way to youth for more start ups and initiatives” –  There should be the mentality that youth fight for what they believe in.  Yet in our eyes, Barama media was that platform that was created by the help of teachers and a nongovernment organization. In our eyes, it was a bliss of hope, that opened a window to the sun.

The downfalls and achievements of youth 

It became interesting to us journalists of  Eurasia diary it became interesting to ask the question that I hid for the right time to ask, why do we boast about “Topaz*” that works 24\7, but not the libraries that should be working 24\7. Well… a few who can give an answer to this, although the question wasn’t said in its full version. For some reason I was sure that those people would be able to give me an answer, and find a solution to this. A time would come when the time of the generation of Chaikhanas would disappears just like it appeared, but it wont disappear by itself…

Barama media is one of the few organizations that is able to bring their ambitions to reality. This gives us a reason to give it a thought, to fly we need to get out of our cocoon.

Bitcoin* is a worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system.

Topaz* a famus Azerbaijani sport-betting network. 

Authors: Emil Aliyev, Yasmeen Abdul Hak