The cross-cultural educational festival “New Day” concluded in Dushanbe — an event that became more than just a program for schoolchildren. For several days, the festival transformed the city into a living educational environment where children could explore, create, ask questions, try new roles, and look at the future in a new way.

The festival was implemented by Teach For Tajikistan in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Science of Tajikistan and the Center for Additional Education for Children and Adolescents under the Ministry of Education and Science of the country. The general sponsor and co-organizer of the festival was NERU company.

Helping a child see opportunities

The main idea of the festival is simple and very important: education should help a child see their opportunities more broadly. Not only to learn from textbooks but also to understand the city, technology, culture, profession, teamwork, and their own role in the future of the country.

For Teach For Tajikistan, the “New Day” festival became a continuation of an approach where the child is at the center of the educational process. Organizers note that modern learning formats should provide children not only with knowledge but also with experience. Experience in creation, communication, research, public presentation of their ideas, and interaction with real professionals.

That is why the festival was built around workshops, not lectures. During the program, children chose directions, worked with masters, tried themselves in different fields, and learned to see the surrounding world as a space of opportunities.

For some, it was their first experience in media or theater, for others – an introduction to artificial intelligence, VR, robotics, design, urban environment, or visual arts. But for all participants, it was an experience where they could feel: their ideas matter, their voice is heard, and the future can not only be awaited but also created.

NERU played a special role in the implementation of the festival. NERU’s support was not just a financial contribution to the event. The company acted as the general sponsor and co-organizer of the festival, and its participation became a substantive part of the conversation about the city of the future, safety, technology, and responsibility to the new generation.

A safe city is not an abstract concept

Today, NERU is associated with topics directly related to the development of the modern urban environment: safe city, technological solutions, urban infrastructure, digital services, electric charging stations, parking systems. That is why the partnership between NERU and the “New Day” festival turned out to be so organic.

Through the festival, children had the opportunity to see that a safe and modern city is not an abstract concept. It is a system of solutions, technologies, ideas, and human responsibility. It is a city where not only roads and buildings are important, but also safety, environmental friendliness, accessibility, convenience, digital tools, and attention to people.

One of the strongest parts of the festival was related to this. Participants got acquainted with Smart City, saw how the concept of a safe city can work, and were able to look at Dushanbe not only as residents but also as future creators, researchers, and participants in urban changes.

For children, this became an important educational experience: they saw that technologies can be not complex, but understandable and useful. Cameras, digital services, smart parking, electric charging stations, urban mobility, safe infrastructure — all this became part of the conversation about what Dushanbe could be tomorrow.

Connecting children’s creativity with the real urban agenda

In the technological workshops, this topic received a creative continuation. Children discussed how to make the city more convenient and safer, how artificial intelligence can help people, how VR allows imagining future spaces, how robotics can be connected with everyday life, home, parking, roads, and the urban environment.

This is how children’s ideas related to smart city, safe spaces, green technologies, urban infrastructure, and services for residents emerged.

Importantly, children were not imposed with ready-made answers. They were given the opportunity to see real examples, get inspired, and try to propose their own solutions. This is the value of such educational formats: a child not only learns something new but begins to think as an author.

In this process, NERU became not just a partner. The company became part of the meaningful framework of the festival. Its participation helped connect children’s creativity with the real urban agenda: safety, technology, green mobility, and responsible attitude towards the future of Dushanbe.

A separate significance was the excursion to NERU’s electric charging stations. For participants, it was an introduction to how modern urban services work, why electric transport and green technologies are becoming an important part of city development, and how business can participate in creating a more environmentally friendly and modern infrastructure.

This experience is especially important for teenagers. At this age, the understanding of profession, society, personal opportunities, and future is formed. When a child sees real companies, real technologies, and real urban solutions, they begin to understand that the development of the country is not something distant. It is something they can one day participate in.

In this sense, NERU’s participation in the festival became an example of modern corporate social responsibility. Not formal, not one-time, but connected with real meanings: children, city, technology, safety, education, and future.

“For children to feel like authors of ideas”

By supporting the “New Day” festival, NERU helped create a space where schoolchildren could touch upon topics that define the future of Dushanbe. This is a contribution not only to the event but also to the formation of a generation that will better understand the city, technology, and their responsibility for the environment they live in.

As noted by the co-founder and CEO of Teach For Tajikistan, Matluba Salikhova, it was important for the team that the festival became not just a bright event, but an experience that changes a child’s view of themselves and the city.

“We wanted children to feel like authors of ideas. To see that the city is not only a space for adult decisions. It is a place where every child’s perspective, question, dream, and ability to create is important. NERU’s support allowed us to connect education with the real urban agenda – a safe city, technology, green mobility, and the future of Dushanbe,” she noted.

But the strength of the festival was not only in the technological part. “New Day” united ten workshops, each of which revealed children in its own way. Urban studies helped to look at the city more attentively. Media taught to ask questions and tell stories. Cinema gave the opportunity to see the world through a frame.

Theater helped work with voice, body, and confidence. Design and merch turned ideas into real objects. Urban sculpture gave form to collective imagination. Digital, VR, robotics, and artificial intelligence showed that technologies can be a tool for creativity and change.

Each workshop was important because every child is different. One needs to go on stage to believe in themselves. Another – to take an interview to learn to talk to people. A third – to assemble an object with their hands. A fourth – to see the city through VR or come up with a digital solution. The festival gave children the space of choice – and this became its main educational result.

The living voice of the festival

It is worth noting the media workshop separately, which became a kind of living voice of the festival. Participants interviewed masters, children, and guests, collected emotions, impressions, questions, and feedback. Through their work, the festival told about itself – not dryly and officially, but vividly, through faces, reactions, and stories of participants.

In the design workshop, children created products with the integration of the general partner: T-shirts and shoppers with NERU logos. This was not just souvenir products, but the result of children’s work — from idea to visual solution. The finished products were released and gifted to festival partners, becoming a symbol of how children’s creativity can turn into a real product.

The final day of the festival took place on May 10 at the “Lukhtak” puppet theater. This space became an important and symbolic venue for the festival’s conclusion. It was there that children presented their works, ideas, visual materials, stage formats, and the results of a week-long educational process.

The final festival-exhibition became a moment of recognition. Children saw that their work matters. Parents, partners, guests, and masters saw how seriously schoolchildren can work if they are given trust, space, and support. And the city saw children not only as students but also as authors, researchers, and participants in the cultural life of Dushanbe.

The common task of partners – the development of children

The festival became possible thanks to the joint work of many parties. In addition to the general sponsor and co-organizer NERU, important contributions to the festival’s implementation were made by companies Marmari, “Siyoma”, AKIA Avesto, BOXSTORE, the “Lukhtak” puppet theater, as well as UNDP in Tajikistan with the support of Russian trust funds.

BOXSTORE provided half a ton of cardboard for the workshops, which became an important material for creating objects, models, and installations. Marmari, “Siyoma”, and AKIA Avesto supported the festival’s implementation and helped create conditions for its realization. The “Lukhtak” theater hosted the final day of the festival, becoming a venue where children’s ideas were presented to a wide audience. The participation of UNDP in Tajikistan with the support of Russian trust funds enhanced the educational and social significance of the project.

Such a circle of partners shows that the development of children is a common task. The state, educational initiatives, business, international organizations, cultural venues, and professional communities can together create an environment for children in which they grow not only as students but also as future citizens, specialists, and leaders.

For Teach For Tajikistan, the “New Day” festival became proof that there is a huge potential for new educational formats in Tajikistan. Formats that do not replace school but enhance it. Formats that return children’s interest in learning through practice, creativity, city, technology, and live communication with professionals.

For NERU, this festival became an example of how business can be a participant in city development not only through infrastructure but also through investments in children. A safe and modern city begins not only with cameras, parking, services, and charging stations. It begins with a generation that understands why all this is needed, knows how to think about the city, and feels responsible for its future.

The “New Day” festival has ended, but its significance goes far beyond one week. It showed that children are ready to talk about serious topics if they are spoken to seriously. They are ready to create if they are trusted. They are ready to think about the future if given the opportunity to see themselves as part of it.

And perhaps this is the main result of the festival: a new day begins when a child first understands that they can not only live in the city but also one day change it for the better.