The Organization of Russian Compatriots in Qatar provides a strong platform for thousands of Russian-speaking people to interact with each other and stay rooted with their language and culture through the various cultural programs and activities it organises.
“The objective of the organization is to communicate with Russian-speaking people living in Qatar who may hail from different countries to make them feel at home,” Natalia Goryainova, (pictured) Chairperson of Coordinating Committee of Organization of Russian Compatriots in Qatar told The Peninsula at the opening of Russian Festival recently at Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Museum
She said that the Organisation also holds concerts and other activities for children according to their age group. “Another purpose of the Organisation is to keep Russian-speaking people connected with their language and culture,” said Goryainova, adding that the Russian school opens its cultural center on Fridays to promote culture.
She added that the Organization of Russian Compatriots in Qatar, established almost five years ago, is organising a lot of events to demonstrate Russian culture in Qatar specially this year which is being celebrated as Qatar-Russia Year of Culture.
“Under ‘Qatar-Russia 2018 Year of Culture’, the Organization of Russian Compatriots in Qatar is organising many cultural programs and concerts at various places like Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, Katara, Qatar Foundation and universities,” said Goryainova.
“The cultural events like the Russian Festival we are organising today is exhibiting photographs and paintings by Russian speaking people in Qatar and is aimed at connecting Russian expatriates and demonstrating Russian culture in Qatar,” she added.
She said that the Organization of Russian Compatriots in Qatar has over 7,000 members comprising Russian-speaking people in Qatar.
Asked on the achievements of the organisation since its inception, she said: “Now we have more members. Earlier we were doing events and programmes only for Russian-speaking people but now we started organising programs to demonstrate Russian culture to other nationalities.”
Speaking about the benefit of Qatar-Russia 2018 Year of Culture, Goryainova said: “We will be able to do more programmes to approach larger number of people to promote Russian culture.”
She said that Qatar-Russia Year of Culture 2018 helped strengthen cultural relations between two countries. For example, in Moscow entities from Qatar organised exhibition demonstrating their culture to those residing in Russia.
“And, in turn, here in Qatar, we Russians are organizing exhibitions which are being visited also by Qatari people. We invite Qatari citizens in every exhibition to participate. Last year, we organised the Happy Plate exhibition in Qatar Foundation which was participated in by many Qatari citizens including kids,” said Goryainova.
