Winter 2000 (8.4)
Page 93

SOCAR Section
Exxon - Children's Encyclopedia

With the independence of Azerbaijan came the adoption of a new alphabet - Latin - to replace the Cyrillic script of the Soviet period.

Left: Exxon has been in the forefront these past years publishing educational materials in the new Latin script.

But this decision which enables Azerbaijan to integrate with the West more readily also creates tremendous problems for this generation's youth because so few educational materials are available in the new script.

Exxon has been at the forefront among the international oil companies for the past several years in creating materials to help alleviate this problem. This fall they completed the last of five volumes in a Children's Encyclopedia which explores the ideas of (1) History, (2) Nature, (3) Art, (4) Human Beings, and (5) Globe. Exxon commissioned the illustrated books to be published by Ayna-Zerkalo newspaper.

Joseph Carlson, Manager of Government Affairs of Exxon Azerbaijan and Borje Sjokvist head of the IFRCRC (International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Society) distributed these educational materials along with beginner counting books to children in the Sabirabad Refugee camp in September.

In 1996, Exxon published the first Azerbaijani-English Dictionary (Cyrillic), followed by an expanded volume in 1998 in Latin script (45,000 terms and 648 pages). Exxon is currently supporting the preparation of the reverse volume, English-Azerbaijan, which should be available soon. See Autumn 1998, "Linguistic Milestones," (AI 6.3), page 67.

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From Azerbaijan International (8.4) Winter 2000.
© Azerbaijan International 2000. All rights reserved.

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