Seven children's health camps on Lake Baikal received subsidies from the city budget

In Irkutsk, seven health camps received subsidies from the city budget, and about 1500 children and teenagers will rest there this summer. The administration inspected three camps on Lake Baikal and found no violations, all had good conditions, safety, food, and educational programs. Especially interesting are camps where children not only rest, but also study ecology, tourism, journalism, karate, and even scientific research on Baikal.

In 2012, seven health camps received subsidies from the city budget, where about 1,500 people will rest. These include two stationary camps and five tent camps, mostly located in the waters of Lake Baikal. The main activities with children are sports, tourism, ecology, leadership development, and a KVN school. The overall session dates are from June 13 to August 18. The city budget of Irkutsk allocated 5,600.0 thousand rubles for organizing the camps. The amount of subsidies depends on the number of children in the health camps and the cost of infrastructure.
The Irkutsk administration commission, headed by Dmitry Abramovich, head of the Department of Physical Culture, Sports and Youth Policy, conducted an on-site inspection of three summer health camps that received subsidies from the city budget. Representatives of the administration visited the ecological and tourist camp “Olkhon” (subsidy of 1 million rubles), the Russian Union of Youth camp “Irkutsk – the Middle of the Earth” (subsidy of about 500 thousand rubles), and the sports camp “Baikalsky Dozor” (subsidy of about 2 million rubles). The purpose of the inspection was to assess the conditions in which children stay, safety provisions, and the quality of meals. According to Dmitry Abramovich, the budget subsidies were mainly received by public organizations that actively work in Irkutsk throughout the year.
“When providing support, we pay attention to the experience of organizing camps in previous years, the feedback from children and parents, and, of course, the financial discipline of the managers,” the department head noted. “Our task is to check not only living conditions, but also the implementation of programs in each of the declared areas.”
The “Olkhon” camp was founded almost 20 years ago thanks to the year-round educational program “Olkhon” of the ecological and tourist center of the municipal educational institution “Palace of Children’s and Youth Creativity of Irkutsk.” The authors of this program are Galina Yevgrafovna Miroshnichenko and Galina Fedorovna Shelkovnikova. The camp itself is located in the picturesque Ulan-Khushin Bay on Olkhon Island. Every summer about 300 children aged 7 to 16 rest here. These are mainly children from different schools in Irkutsk, but teenagers also come here from other cities of the Angara region and even Moscow. This year the second session is international. Children from China are staying at the camp.
“The camp has a very diverse program, but for us the main thing is to teach children the basics of scientific research in the fields of ecology, botany, geobotany, and ichthyology,” said Galina Miroshnichenko, director of the “Olkhon” camp. “We have equipped one of the tents as a research laboratory. The children have a microscope, a binocular microscope, binoculars, and a GPS navigator at their disposal.”
The children are interested not only in studying plants, but also in Baikal crustaceans—gammarids—algae, and in measuring the temperature of Lake Baikal water, the air, and the wind direction. For example, an 8th-grade student from School No. 47, Daniil Kondratyuk, prepared a scientific report titled “Natural Monuments of Baikal.”
“This is my first scientific work. It uses observations of natural monuments—Peschanaya Bay and Burkhan Cape. I will present the report at a field scientific and practical conference. I don’t mind spending summer days on this work, because I find it very interesting,” Daniil said.
The authors of the best reports take part in the city school scientific and practical conference “Along the Paths of the Baikal Region.” Among the children are winners of regional and international scientific conferences, as well as Presidential Prize laureates. The camp becomes the starting point for real scientific work in the study of Baikal.
The RSM tent camp “Irkutsk – the Middle of the Earth” is also located on Olkhon Island near the village of Kharantsy. It has three sessions, in which more than 300 people will rest. According to the camp director, Oksana Bichevina, the camp program is designed not only for schoolchildren, but also for students.
“These are activists of school and student self-government. More than half of the children come to us year after year, attending the Counselor School in the fall and participating in the work of the Russian Youth Union throughout the year,” the director noted.
Life in the camp is full of events: picnics by the fire with songs to the guitar, evening shows, an exciting nighttime event, as well as football, volleyball, the entertainment and sports game “Jungle,” and tourism classes. However, young people here do not only rest and swim, but also meet interesting people, work in their chosen areas, and develop projects on socially important issues.
The camp offers classes in various areas: ecotourism, volunteering, economics and business, international cooperation, and journalism school. It has its own creative team and even a KVN team. On the day the commission arrived, master classes in rock climbing and diving were held. For student Katya Mashutova, the most vivid episode of the summer was diving into the waters of Baikal.
“Diving is very extreme and interesting! Well, our professional instructors helped me overcome uncertainty and fear,” Katya says.
According to the camp director, volunteer camp assistants—special forces divers—come to the camp to conduct diving master classes. At the end of the program, participants receive certificates confirming completion of a specific educational course.
The next camp is “Baikalsky Dozor” of the Irkutsk regional public organization “Baikal Kyokushin Karate League.” It is located at the Da-Shi Recreation Center in the Khuzhir-Nugai Bay. During the summer, the camp hosts 3 sessions of 180 people each.
At half past six in the morning, the first training session begins. And there are three of them during the day. And the members of the sports camp “Baikalsky Dozor” like that. After all, almost all of them are athletes. As camp director Alexander Klassen said, the main goal of the classes is to teach athletes to overcome pain, fatigue, and fear. For the third year already, the public organization has invited renowned athletes from Japan for the summer course. This year, the master classes are conducted by Shihan Kyama, the 2003 Kyokushin world champion.
“I am very happy to work in such a team and in such a wonderful place. Everything here is organized very seriously. Despite the summer temptations, everyone works for results. The main thing in this sport is not only to defeat your opponent, but also to become stronger internally, not to lose to yourself,” the shihan emphasized.
For the fifth year, Irkutsk schoolgirl, 8th-grade student of Lyceum No. 3 Alina Ponomarchuk, winner of Kyokushin competitions in the city of Irkutsk and the Siberian Federal District, has been training and resting at the camp. Thanks to classes with Japanese coaches, this summer she mastered a new technique. “It’s hard, but very interesting,” Alina noted. It is here that young people take qualification exams in karate kyokushin.
The leaders of “Baikalsky Dozor” say that the money from the city budget was not spent in vain on the camp. The camp has been held for more than 20 years, and for the last 5 years in this bay in comfortable conditions. There are showers with hot water and toilets that meet sanitary standards.
The city administration’s on-site commission found no violations in the camps’ operations. “Let us note that tent camps are in no way worse than stationary ones. The conditions in them are becoming more and more comfortable. All camps provide high-quality, full five-meal-a-day nutrition, a rational daily schedule, medical support, and security. It is also important that the organizers and teachers carry out the planned educational programs. Everyone works with enthusiasm, putting in maximum effort and creativity,” Dmitry Abramovich summed up the trip.
“The organization of summer recreation for children and youth is one of the priority areas of the city administration in the field of youth policy,” says Mayor Viktor Kondrashov, commenting on the progress of the 2012 health campaign. “The city administration has supported, and will continue to support, enthusiastic teachers, and the amount of subsidies will increase. In total, more than 17 million rubles have been allocated from the city budget for organizing summer recreation for children.”
It is planned that during the summer holidays, including in suburban stationary and tent camps, about 24 thousand young residents of Irkutsk will rest.
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration