Children’s and people’s diplomacy: 100 years together
Despite the challenging international situation, children’s diplomacy continues to thrive. This was stated by Yelena Zhivoglyad, First Deputy Director of the Artek International Children’s Centre, during the International Cooperation Forum at the National Centre RUSSIA. Like people’s diplomacy, Artek is marking its centenary this year.
"For us, 2025 is symbolic — we are celebrating our 100th anniversary together with people’s diplomacy. Children’s diplomacy has not ended; it continues. Every year we welcome children from abroad, and in this jubilee year alone we have already hosted almost 3,000 children from 81 countries. This proves that our programmes are in high demand internationally," noted the First Deputy Director of the Artek International Children’s Centre, Yelena Zhivoglyad.
The Deputy Director of Artek elaborated on the educational programmes implemented at the Centre with the support of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rossotrudnichestvo, and other partners.
"We run many international projects, including our own programmes 'Children of the World' and 'The BRICS World — the World of the Future'. Children can take part completely free of charge. Among the best-known initiatives are the international track of 'Bolshaya Peremena' ('Big Change'), the 'Living Classics' project and many others," she said.
Yelena Zhivoglyad added that Artek is open to cooperation with various countries through the Russian Houses — the overseas representative offices of Rossotrudnichestvo: "Our team actively works on the premises of Rossotrudnichestvo’s representative offices, where we present our educational programmes and formats of working with children. This has a positive effect — the number of children coming to us from those countries has increased two- to threefold. Therefore, we are open to cooperation and ready to expand this practice."
The Artek International Children’s Centre is an international educational venue located in Crimea at the foot of the legendary Mount Ayu-Dag. Over its century-long history, the Centre has welcomed about two million children from around the world. Through joint creativity, study and recreation, children from different countries learn to understand one another and build bridges of friendship.
