1,000 children\'s holiday camps for more than 270,000 children open up across the country in the Year of Wellbeing and Prosperity.

Summer vacation of 2013 is organized in accordance with the government-approved ‘Concept of children’s leisure and recreation’.

To improve efficiency in this field the Republican Coordinating Group was established on the government level for organization of children’s recreation, development of measures on health improvement and maintenance of the system of monitoring and control over their implementation.

A National Coordinating Group has been established to ensure well-coordinated recreation for children, developing measures for improvement and maintenance of the system of control and monitoring of their organization. Local coordination groups are functioning in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, regions and Tashkent city. Certain work has been done to enhance children’s safety, providing them with quality food products and medicines, attract qualified teachers and health workers in children\'s camps. The logistical base is improving and the number of children\'s health resorts is growing year by year.

Repair and preparatory works are currently coming to an end in all the camps, their logistical base is upgraded, the targeted program on reconstruction and overhaul of existing camps and construction of the new ones is underway. The program of 2013 envisages the construction of two new, reconstruction of 15 and overhaul of 19 existing children\'s health camps.

For the better organization of summer recreation of children the Council of the Federation of Trade Unions of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the ministries of health, education, internal affairs, culture and sports, as well as Youths’ Public Movement Kamolot held field workshops to provide the staff of children\'s health camps with manuals, scripts, guidelines, children\'s movies, song compositions. For spiritual development Organizers keep in mind that summer vacation is not only about the physical rehabilitation of children, but also about development of spirituality and intellectual potential of the younger generation. In order to fulfill this task, some special programs were developed to improve the quality and content of educational work in the camps.

It is important to track the dynamics of the growing number of children\'s health resorts across the country. In the Year of Wellbeing and Prosperity 1,000 children\'s summer camps will operate in the republic, including 210 of them in the countryside, 740 under educational institutions (schools, academic lyceums and vocational colleges), and 50 labor and recreation camps for adolescents. Against last year the number of camps has increased by exactly one hundred.

270,375 children will improve their health in children\'s camps throughout the country this year. It is noteworthy that under the national program the Year of Wellbeing and Prosperity 4,500 children from the Aral Sea region will be provided with free rest in 14 best camps of Jizzakh, Qashqadaryo, Samarqand and Tashkent regions and Tashkent city. More than 120,000 boys and girls will be provided with the passes subsidized by trade union. About 33 billion soums (Currency rates of CB from 01.06.2013 1$=2081.59soums) will be allocated for these purposes. By tradition, the new summer recreation season will start on June 1, the International Children\'s Day.

Organizers of children’s treatment and recreation aim at comprehensive development of the younger generation. In this context, as the two-year experience shows, specialized camps of intellectual development, sports, rehabilitation, work and leisure specialization camps will be most popular this year. There will be 97 of them this season. Not only the number of them (last year there were 67), but also the subject matter of children\'s camps has changed: the current holiday season is new with environmental and biological, natural history, and engineering creativity camps. Due to the increasing interest in recreational and labor camps their number will double and reach 50 this summer.

Including intellectual growth

The issue of thought-out arrangement of summer recreation is undoubtedly relevant for all parents. How to make sure that your child gets not just good rest and gains strength before the new school year, but also acquires new knowledge? Specifically for gifted children of general schools the Council of the Federation of Trade Unions and the Ministry of Public Education will organize intellectual development camps. There the young sharpies will not only improve their health, but also acquire important knowledge for successful study. The Quyoshli (Sunny) camp of the Council of the Federation of Trade Unions has established itself as a children\'s intellectual development camp.

Thousands of talented children from orphanages, schools honors, winners of national competitions annually come to the foothills of the Chimgan in Bostanlyk district. The Quyoshli provides all the conditions for outdoor activities, enhancement of knowledge and improvement of children’s health. Rich library, numerous clubs and creative studios and a computer lab are available. It should be noted that all the camps, regardless of their specialization, assign a particular part to improving creative and intellectual capacity of children, to their spiritual and enlightenment education. It is planned to organize the actions ‘Independence in my life’, ‘A land of happy children’, ‘Trade unions for children, and others. In order to provide an eventful cultural program the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Uzbekistan and the National Spirituality Center arranged tours of well-known artists of the country to the children\'s camp, as well as meetings with the figures of art. Barkamol Avlod centers and many other organizations also developed their programs. Similar specialized camps will be opened in every region.

The most important innovation

This season for the first time the curriculum of camps provides special language learning clubs. This step is a real response to meet the objectives outlined by the President in the Resolution ‘On measures to further streamline the system of foreign languages learning’. A particular attention will be paid to enhancing of children\'s interest in foreign languages with the help of visual aids. The clubs will be organized with active application of non-traditional teaching know-how for a deeper comprehension of the material.

Rehabilitation and recreation of children is a permanent focus of trade unions. In the summer period more than 30,000 children of different industries will improve their health on discounts under collective bargaining agreements between companies, organizations and institutions. Within the national program the Mahalla Charity Fund will assist in organization of free rehabilitation of more than 600 children from socially vulnerable families and children without parents. Children with disabilities will be able to have rest in the camps of social adaptation and restore their health for free. 1,500 children will improve their health together with their parents this season in health resorts of the trade union system on a preferential basis.

(Source: “Uzbekistan today” newspaper)