Twelve students from India participated in the winter camp in Russia organised by Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, technical  consultant and main equipment supplier for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu.

The “International Smart Holidays” camp was held from January 3 to 11 in the Ural region, located on the border between Europe and Asia. Within 9 days the children were able to reveal their abilities and talents, feelings, and ideas about the future; open themselves to the new environment, impressions, friends, Russian winter and experience Russian hospitality and tradition along with winter sports and fun experiences like sleigh rides, making snowman, snowball fight and other winter fun.

“Students from India, Egypt, Ghana, Russia, Turkey, not only live together but learn to understand each other and work together, by truly overcoming language and cultural barriers,” said Mr. Andrey Shevlyakov, CEO of Rosatom South Asia.

Advait Iyer from Yuvabharathi P. School, Coimbatore said: “It was easily the best experience of my life and I now feel like I am a more social person. The experiences we had in the snow was a new one for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The camp was well organised and managed, food was decent. The friends I made here will last in my memory forever.”

During the camp, students also visited various science museums in Moscow and took part in various group projects in education, art and sports. Activities included swimming, ice skating, skiing and sledging.

Children from all over India were selected on the basis of a competition, jointly organized with Techfest IIT Bombay and Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF).

More than 4.5 lakh students across 24,000 schools from 8th to 10th grade participated in the challenge.

Source: Deccan Chronicle