The opening ceremony for the newly built complex featured festive music as well as welcome speeches by members of the institute’s administration, with a representative of Mehr Nuri Foundation having handed over a symbolic key to the rector of the Pediatric Institute. The event has become a true milestone for the Institute as its students have had their PE classes and training sessions either in the open air or in atypical venues since the institute’s establishment in 1972.

Students at the Institute will now be able to train more effectively and with comfort, and this in turn will help them to achieve better results and set new sporting records.

Botir Daminov, the Rector of Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute:

“Today is a great day for our school as we a big amazing sports complex has been opened and become part of our school. It is symbolic that the opening ceremony takes place on the eve of the International Child Protection Day. Supporting healthcare for the youth and sports, especially children’s sports, receives a great amount of attention in Uzbekistan. Sports develop not only the body but also nourish the spirit, boosts endurance and willpower. I want to say a big thank you on behalf of our staff and students to Mehr Nuri Foundation and Gulnara Karimova for this huge gift. I’m sure this amazing facility will serve us for many many years and that we’ll be able to train new champions and set new records.”

The sporting complex, whose construction at Tashkent Pediatric Institute was launched in August 2011 and completed in May this year, is another in the series of projects launched by Mehr Nuri Foundation with an eye to supporting the development of a healthcare system, reconstruction and provision of equipment for social facilities.

The brand new facility is a two-story building which has a usable area of 2,880 square meters and boasts modern sporting inventory and furniture.

It also houses sections for weightlifting, wrestling, fitness and gymnastics; space for indoor football, basketball and volleyball; a 150-person audience area and 4 classrooms for theoretical training.

The sports complex is designed for both theoretical and practical sessions in sports medicine as well as practical training sessions in various types of sports and preparations for national and international-level competitions.