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Mrs. Ilves visits Shanghai

18.10.2010

The First Lady, Mrs. Evelin Ilves, participated in Estonian Day at the Shanghai EXPO as a member of the Estonian delegation and at the presentation of the first book to be translated from Estonian into Chinese in Shanghai Children’s Library as well as visiting the local elementary school to observe a special nutrition programme.

Yesterday, Mrs. Evelin Ilves participated in the Estonian Day at EXPO as a member of the Estonian delegation, led by the Foreign Minister, Mr. Urmas Paet, with the purpose of contributing to introducing Estonia in the People’s Republic of China and other countries involved with the EXPO in general. Mrs. Evelin Ilves met with the representatives of a number of countries that were participating in EXPO, and she visited the pavilions of Finland and Iceland.

“This is the largest event in the world that is aimed at marketing countries. I’m glad that the Estonian pavilion is displayed in the same region as the other Nordic pavilions at EXPO, and the pavilions are linked by minimalism and focus on sustainability, recycling, the power of nature, and the future of mankind. We don’t ravage the world; we maintain it. This seemed to be the general message that was conveyed by the Nordic countries,” Mrs. Ilves said.

Within the framework of the visit, Mrs. Ilves today visited the 1^st Luwani Elementary School with representatives of the Shanghai Educational Committee; a special nutrition programme is implemented in this school in co-operation with Jiaotang University.

“A nutrition programme that was developed by the university in co-operation with the Shanghai Educational Committee is used in the elementary school where 1,200 children study. The school also has close contacts with parents to obtain feedback. This serves as a good example of trilateral co-operation, which serves the interests of children,” said Mrs. Ilves.

Mrs. Ilves noted that only fresh ingredients are used for cooking and sweets are deliberately not offered to children, as the children will get enough of additional sugar from different sources elsewhere.

As the Patron of the Estonian Centre of Children’s Literature, Mrs. Ilves today participated in the presentation of the first Chinese translation of the compilation “Estonian Fairy Tales”, containing stories by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald and August Jakobson.

“For the first time ever, Estonian literature is available to Chinese children in their native language – this is something that will bring countries closer to each other and is definitely an achievement that is worth acknowledging,” Mrs. Evelin Ilves admitted.