Circassian educational project for schoolchildren finishes in Nalchik

During a week, participants of the international educational project "Zhyg shlagyum" in Kabardino-Balkaria were indulging in the Circassian culture in the Kabardian language. Madina Khakuasheva, a co-organizer of the project, and expert Naima Neflyasheva expressed the hope that the project would be continued.

The project "Zhyg shlagyum" (Under the Tree), designed for children of 9-15 years old, was launched on July 16. Its participants were engaged in natural history, they talked about Circassian horses, folklore music, and got acquainted with crafts, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

The project was organized by Madina Khakuasheva, the leading researcher at the Kabardino-Balkarian Institute of Humanitarian Studies (known as KBIGI), artist Milana Khalilova, and Lydia Zhigunova, Professor at the Department of Russian Language and Literature at the Tulane University in the USA. The aim of the project is to help students to immerse themselves in the world of national culture with the help of their native language, the organizers noted.

Madina Khakuasheva believes that residents of Kabardino-Balkaria and other national republics face problems in studying their native language, since children are not provided with the immersion into national culture and language at schools.

According to Naima Neflyasheva, the senior researcher at the Centre for Civilization and Regional Studies of the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), an author of the blog "Northern Caucasus through the Centuries" at the "Caucasian Knot", the project is "absolutely Circassian in its spirit."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.