BELARUS, Minsk Four kids from Tanzania took part in the XV International musical tour as part of Nuclear Kids project. Nuclear Kids (“NucKids”) is an annual International creative project for children of employees of Russian nuclear industry enterprises and foreign partners of Rosatom, a global leader in nuclear technologies.
The main goals of the project are to develop new traditions of cultural interaction between children of nuclear industry employees and create conditions for realizing the creativity of these talented children.
The big and exciting adventure began on 8 July 2023 at a health resort “Yunost” in the Republic of Belarus near Minsk. A special feature of the project is that under the guidance of professional mentors in three weeks young artists create a musical performance, which is presented in Russian cities and abroad. Over 15 years of the project’s existence, 900 children from 25 countries have become participants and members of one big community. The kids themselves call “NucKids” a family.
In 2023 kids had a responsible task to stage a professional musical in 3 weeks. The children presented 4 performances in Ostrovets (Belarus), 3 performances in Nizhny Novgorod (Russia), 4 performances in Obninsk (Russia) and 4 performances in Moscow (Russia). It is symbolic that in the 15th anniversary season the musical was shown to the audience 15 times. The participants also had time to prepare and hold the Gala Concert “The Best Songs of Nuckids”.
The concert programme included more than 30 songs, all of which were performed live by the project’s seniors and this year’s participants.
5 countries took part in the project: Bangladesh, Hungary, the Republic of Belarus, Tanzania and the Russian Federation. Each foreign participant found themselves a role in the performance. For example, the participants from Tanzania learnt rap in Russian and performed it for the audience.
In addition to role allocation, rehearsals, and making scenery, the children took part in a guided tour of Minsk, a trip to a water park, and many other activities.
“Nuclear Kids” has an important social significance: the project allows children from different cities and countries to not only visit different parts of the world free of charge, but also work with experienced teachers, and build relations with peers sharing the same interests and ideas. In order to become a participant of the “Nuclear Kids” project it is necessary to participate in the selection stage. Annually, the organizing committee receives more than 1000 applications from candidates: the competition is on average from 8 to 10 people per place. Therefore, about 80 children take part in the project every year, including children of Rosatom’s foreign partners.
“Nuclear Kids” isn’t the first project aimed at developing new traditions of cultural interaction between young generations. In November 2022 Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia became the venue for the international Youth Forum “Russia-Africa: Nuclear Education for Sustainable Development”, which was organized and held with the support of Rosatom.
The section “Nuclear Medicine” attracted attention of participants interested in the development and production of new generation radiopharmaceuticals, the use of 3D-printed biocompatible polymeric microchamber structures in terranostics, radionuclide diagnostics in oncological practice and etc. Students and graduate students of Tomsk Polytechnic University from Tanzania included were the speakers of this section.
Thus, during the section “Youth / Public Movements and Organizations”, involving the speakers of the section from Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, the potential of the project Ambassadors of Russian Nuclear Education was discussed for the development of youth projects between the peoples of African countries and Russia. Such events like Youth Forum and “Nuclear Kids” projects become a social platform for exchange of opinions and talents between African countries and Russia.
Over the years of project implementation, lasting relationships have been built with many state and local authorities, as well as with state and public organizations.
