In early December there was an opening of the first computer classrooms as part of one of my Youth Year projects. These were the two classrooms in Tataria that I’ve written about before: in a school attached to the Observatoriya TB clinic in Zelenodolskiy District, and in the “Selet” extended day centre for children from low-income families in Apastovskiy District. The Observatoriya clinic is a TB rehabilitation centre - the only one in whole Tataria. The kids can be there for a month or two, or even a year, but now, thanks to the computer classrooms, they will have more opportunities to access the information they need to prepare for classes. They’ll have at their fingertips electronic libraries, special websites that they can use to prepare presentations or to find material on school subjects. Access to the internet will also expand the kids’ opportunities to socialize, for example, with classmates, parents and friends who stayed at home.
* The Observatoriya TB clinic
Extended day centre in Apastovo is often used by teenagers with disabilities. They come here from all over the district because the centre is well equipped and it’s convenient, even for children with disabilities. There are ramps at each entrance and the computer desks can be adjusted for a wheelchair. The meetings with the kids in both the clinic and the «Selet» centre were really joyful and touching. We've been for this meeting for a long time, but various things kept preventing us from meeting sooner. For me it’s always a great happiness to meet with children – they always radiate so much emotion, warmth and sincerity. We took some photographs together, exchanged addresses and shared our experiences and plans for the future. Children are very happy that now they will have a new subject – computer sciences.
* The «Selet» arts centre
The Internet is already a big part of our lives and the opportunities it offers will only expand over time. But this new world, this new information space is not all positive. The Internet can be either a good friend or a bad one: it all depends on the kids themselves and on the choices they make. I wished all the kids for the Internet to become their good friend.
We agreed that in a year's time the kids would write to me how things were going and what has changed in their lives with introduction of the Internet. I promised to publish the best stories on my website and they liked my idea. They then immediately opened my website to see what was on it and learned how to ask questions.
