ASTANA – Krugozor Youth and Tourism Centre, a unique institution based in the most beautiful places of East Kazakhstan, is engaged not only in teaching children and young people, but also gives the skills necessary for environmentally-safe tourism using the best and most up-to-date educational practices. One of its summer programmes is an eco-camp.
“East Kazakhstan has many really good recreation facilities, but we always choose the best and the safest for our children. Health improvement in our eco-camp is based on climatotherapy in combination with health-giving and educational programmes, which include different sport games and competitions, holidays, ship and bus trips with guided tours, discos and language training where our children improve their Russian, Kazakh and English. Children have a really, really good time in our eco-camp, getting new useful skills and knowledge,” said Russian Cultural Centre’s Executive and Director of the Krugozor centre Tatyana Netunayeva in an Aug. 5 interview.
A non-government organisation, Krugozor Centre is based in Peoples’ Friendship House in Ust-Kamenogorsk. The ecological camp was established in 1996 at a time when the majority of camps went bankrupt and closed. Many children hadn’t had the possibility to go to camps during their holidays. In 1997, the centre initiated cooperation with the Environment Protection Department and took an active part in environmental education, a role which it has continued to this day. Later, Krugozor started its own activity by holding different competitions, brain rings and debates for children and young people.
The Vega student-pedagogic team consists of the best students and teachers from East Kazakhstan universities who are trained to work with children using ecological education and creative development programmes in interactive form and play. The team has its own doctor, physical education teacher and DJ. Vega team members are constantly trained in local and national seminars and upgrade their own skills and experience level.
Netunayeva noted the centre is an active participant in the activities of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan and Peoples’ Friendship House, organising events and trainings.
“Friendship is one of the main ideas of our lessons. We discuss it constantly, which is very relevant during the year of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan. We do our best to develop our centre. As a result, we published three books promoting environmental protection among children and young people. We try to make our educational process as interesting as possible,” she said.
The director is concerned about the children’s language problems.
“Some children don’t know Russian well, while another group of children isn’t good in Kazakh. That is why we organise educational games in interactive form, where children with different levels of Kazakh and Russian do their best to teach each other to know both languages. Studying English is always very important for us. We attract English native speakers to teach the language,” she added.
Netunayeva is very proud of Krugozor’s many graduates and said the centre’s teachers are very pleased when their alumni reach adulthood and become successful people. She reminds themnot to forget about the centre, visit them and support its operation.
