Schoolchildren from 12 Countries Became "Ambassadors of Happiness" at the Smena Children's Center

The project session "Ambassadors of Happiness Build Bridges of Friendship" took place at the All-Russian Children's Center Smena on July 8, 2026. The year-round camp is located in the village of Sukko near Anapa on the Black Sea coast. The session was organized by the Department of Happiness of the World Peoples Assembly together with the expert team of the Center for Sociocultural Rehabilitation "Aggregator of Happiness".

The center brought together teenagers from a dozen countries: from France and Serbia to Kuwait and Kazakhstan. The main task of this session of the federal educational platform, whose founders are the Government of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Education of Russia, is to teach children the basics of social design. The mentors gave the children a clear guideline: any problem is not a reason for sadness, but a springboard for new ideas. The schoolchildren mastered quite adult tools: they learned to distribute roles in a team, create a viable product, and change strategy in time if an idea did not work out.

They learned to distinguish a viable project from a dry study, deriving a strict formula of "product plus benefit plus constraints." Serious business practices came into play: creating a minimum viable product (MVP) and the ruthless but effective principle of "Fail Fast" — the ability to quickly admit a mistake if an idea does not take off and change course in time. The teams worked like well-coordinated corporations, where everyone had their own role: from the idea leader to the meticulous tester and the charismatic presenter.

The practice was divided into three thematic blocks:

• "Ambassadors of Happiness Build Bridges of Friendship" — projects that create real and symbolic bridges between cultures (from interactive camp maps to a "Dictionary of Friendship" in the languages of the session participants);

• "Ministries of Happiness of Different Countries" — game formats that transform the cultural characteristics of the world's peoples into elements of exciting quests, board games, and card games;

• "World Lessons of Happiness" — formats where the children themselves become teachers: giving mini-lectures in TED Talks style and master classes, telling about what makes their peoples happy.

The geography of the participants is impressive: five teams were grouped into cultural-geographical clusters. The North-Baltic hub brought together children from Finland, Latvia, and Estonia, the Balto-Slavic belt — representatives from Lithuania, Belarus, and Serbia. The Eurasian Economic Triangle united Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Armenia, while the Mediterranean-Arab cluster — Kuwait, Libya, and France. Working alongside them were the winners of the prestigious international competition "People of Artek," which is held within the framework of the "Club of Friends of Russia" program. In it, schoolchildren from different countries carry out research or creative work on the history of Artek, its famous guests, symbols, and songs.

Ideas were born at the intersection of cultures. At the final defense, the teams "Slavic Crossroads," "EcoPeople," "Future of Youth," "Spiritual Brotherhood," and "Nomadic Friendship" presented their projects, each of which possessed a unique idea and approach to strengthening intercultural dialogue.

The range of ideas was striking: from publishing a global magazine with inspiring stories and culinary master classes of world cuisines to creating a global Garden of Peace. Initiatives were voiced to unite youth through the Russian language and to deeply reflect on spiritual traditions.

Adult mentors helped channel this creative energy in the right direction. Sergey Korchagin, Director of the ANO "Trajectory of Change," shared his extensive experience working in Kazakhstan with the children. Oksana Margiani, Editor-in-Chief of the "Aggregator of Happiness" magazine, revealed the inner workings and basics of creating the magazine. Alfiya Taipova, Coordinator of Innovative Projects at the Center for Sociocultural Rehabilitation "Aggregator of Happiness," clearly demonstrated that loners do not win here — teamwork decides everything. And Marina Volkova, Head of the Department of Happiness of the World Peoples Assembly and CSR "Aggregator of Happiness," immersed the teenagers in the very philosophy of the global movement.

— Today, we not only summed up the results of the project defense of our strategic session "Ambassadors of Happiness Build Bridges of Friendship." We witnessed how new ideas are born and connections grow stronger. Each presented project was unique and interesting, which proves the main thing: the pursuit of happiness and friendship is a universal language understood all over the world, she noted while evaluating the final works.

Following the event, all participants officially joined the international movement "Ambassadors of Happiness" and received an invitation to continue this mission in their countries.

The project session demonstrated that children are capable not only of understanding complex social mechanisms but also of applying them in practice, developing ideas that strengthen friendship between peoples and make the world kinder. The Ambassadors of Happiness from Smena proved that the strongest bridges are built from small steps — one phrase in an unfamiliar language, one dance move, one story at dinner.

This movement has a long road ahead. In 2026, the project "Ambassadors of Happiness: Bridges of Friendship and Understanding" received support from the Presidential Grants Foundation. This means that the network of ambassadors will only continue to grow, erasing borders and proving that the language of mutual understanding needs no translators.

More information is available on the official website of the World Peoples Assembly and at media@world-assembly.org.