A reading child is prosperous Kyrgyzstan

On the 21-st of April, 2018 there was a celebration of World Book and Copyright Day, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the great writer Ch. Aitmatov. It was organized and conducted in close partnership with MoES KR, MCIT KR, USAID, and other international and local organizations. The FFE Project, Save the Children also took an active part in that event.  

The purpose of the celebration was to increase the interest of children and adults in reading books that are access to knowledge, spiritual values and culture, to show the importance of the role of parents in this process, and to draw attention of the communities to the works of the outstanding national writer Ch. Aitmatov in promoting the ideas of patriotism and the value of human life, the unity of a man and nature. The grand opening of the World Book and Copyright Day was on the territory of the memorial and historical complex named after Kurmanzhan Datka. During the event a number of educational and cultural-entertaining activities were organized including: 

• exhibition and sale of books by leading authors of the Kyrgyz Republic and other countries;
• folklore concert and performance of children's dance groups; 
• games and exercises for parents and children to form five basic reading skills, free consultations of speech therapists;
• "Entertaining workshop": contests of children's drawings on paper and on asphalt, master classes for children on origami and quilling;
• master classes and etc.

The FFE Project, SCI conducted master class for children on writing and making books with their own hands. The age of the children varied from 4 to 11 years. After explaining the procedure of making books by the project staff, the children chose the topic they were interested in and then drew the characters accordingly. After completing the drawings they wrote 1-3 sentences, describing their own pictures and expressing their attitudes to them. The youngest children tried to write their names. Each child was making one page of the book, then the ready-made pages were tied together, turning into a book. Overall, the children made about 20 books on different topics, such as “Animals”, “My favorite hero” “My favorite toy”, and others. The children were very happy with their work and were eager to show their books to their parents, teachers, friends, and classmates. They really had fun.