#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This year, the contestants dispersed to different poles – competition categories: Good, Future, City, Revival, Energy, Nature, North, Growth and even New Pole. Almost four hundred participants presented their initiatives to improve the quality of life and sustainable development of the regions. The geography of the competition included Norilsk, Taimyr, the village of Svetlogorsk in the Turuhansky district, Monchegorsk, Pechenga municipal district, Lovozersky district, Chita and Gazimuro-Zavodsky municipal district.
Of the 371 initiatives vying for victory, 168 projects received high marks from independent experts and successfully made it to the finals. And the winners of the social projects competition in 2024 were 117 projects, the authors of which will receive grants from Nornickel for a total of 155 million rubles to implement their initiatives.
Murmansk region’s development
48 experienced contestants and 18 new organizations took part here, exactly half of which became winners in their region and will receive grant support from the company to implement projects in Monchegorsk, Pechenga and Lovozero districts in 2025-2026.
Pole of Energy and Pole of the Future, aimed at developing sports, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and introducing new methods and technologies for working with children, adolescents and young people, became the most popular categories of the competition in the Murmansk region.
For example, the Russian Hockey Development Center in the city of Monchegorsk will create the One Team club and will improve the level of physical health and sports skills of children under 12 years old.
In Monchegorsk, opportunities for residents of different ages to engage in aerial gymnastics, obstacle races, rock climbing, and cycling will also be expanded. And the project idea of schoolchildren living in the settlement of 27 kilometers will allow young mothers to unite for sports.
The debutants who became winners of the competition will unite several generations of Monchegorsk residents in matters of deepening knowledge about the history of the Great Patriotic War through joint activities, and will also help NPO specialists improve their competencies for working with children with speech disorders.
Teenagers from the Pechenga district will create an electronic local history graphic novel, eco-volunteers will green Nikel and Zapolyarny with cedars, and any resident will be able to help science and become a volunteer naturalist.
The renaissance for Transbaikalia
The Pole of Renaissance category has become the most popular in projects from Chita and the Gazimuro-Zavodsky district. Here, Bystrinsky mining and processing plant will support 21 initiatives out of 43 finalist projects.
A project aimed at preserving the dzeren, a goitered antelope, will be one of the largest ones. For the first time in the Gazimuro-Zavodsky district, a project to improve the rural area of the Gazimursky Zavod village’s center will be implemented.
Thanks to the grants, a sewing workshop Magic Needle, a creative workshop Magic Clay in the village of Tayna, the largest theater museum in Transbaikalia based on the drama theater, a club for beginning production teachers Mayak will be opened. And also, thanks to the Pole of Energy category, a series of yoga and art therapy classes will be held for people suffering from cancer and who have undergone chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Social changes in Taimyr
The Norilsk industrial district submitted the maximum number of projects to the competition. In 2024, the topics of patriotism, working with children with disabilities and their parents, and career guidance for schoolchildren became popular among the participants in Taimyr.
Norilsk secondary school No. 27 named after Soviet Union Hero Ts.L. Kunikov, for example, will receive a grant to create a mobile museum for the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Authors from children’s and youth teams of Norilsk sent the maximum number of applications in the NEW Pole category, 13 of which won the 2024 social projects competition.
The Young Technicians’ Station will receive a grant to develop the Childhood Without Load project – it is aimed at popularizing invention among schoolchildren in the northern city. In total, 63 projects out of 84 finalists in the region received the status of winners.
Let us recall that over ten years, World of New Opportunities has supported almost a thousand projects.
Near Monchegorsk, the Tourist Station festival has been recently held, and a new gym has been set up in Dudinka.
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Text: Anzhelika Stepanova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko