The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) office in Uzbekistan has been sending volunteers since 1995 to strengthen cooperation between the two countries and is implementing projects to promote technical cooperation and exchanges in key areas.

Unfortunately, in March 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which also spread in Uzbekistan, all volunteers were sent back to Korea. However, KOICA is working to continuously develop relations with partners, introducing new projects of the volunteer program even during the pandemic.

One such new KOICA project is a set of illustrated fairy tales for children, created by KOICA volunteers and representatives of various ethnic groups living in Korea.

KOICA, together with volunteers from different countries, developed 15 fairy tales included in the collection of stories “Tales of the Motherland” within the framework of the “Blue Bird Flies to You” project. The collection “Tales of the Motherland” includes a variety of fairy tales from different countries, such as Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Vietnam, Iran, Uzbekistan and others. These books have been developed not only in the native language, but also in Korean and English. The KOICA office in Uzbekistan selected 8 of them and translated them into Uzbek and Russian. These books will be donated to 86 specialized schools and 17 kindergartens of the Ministry of Preschool Education.

The first set of books was donated to children of the House of Mercy No. 21 at the Department of Public Education in the city of Tashkent.

The books will also be donated to the National Children’s Medical Center, universities, and Korean institutions in Tashkent.

Gayrat Khonnazarov, UzA