EU PROGRES

Before the end of November, the works on “the green island“ for the composting of organic waste, will start in Blace, the promotion of a “carbon diet” will be launched in Nova Varoš, and the workshop for making objects from recycled material will start in Leskovac.

These activities are part of small environmental projects of primary schools “Stojan Novaković“ from Blace, „Živko Ljujić“ from Nova Varoš, as well as the School for Primary and Secondary Education “11 October“ from Leskovac, which are finalists of the competition launched within the environmental campaign “Where is your threshold of responsibility?“.

The call for proposals of educational campaigns targeted at resolving local environmental problems was announced at the beginning of October, for 127 schools from 25 municipalities of South and South West Serbia.

The students of primary school “Stojan Novaković“ from Blace will ask their municipality for a closed off space for the disposal of organic waste, the so called “green island”. The waste to be collected here will be turned into organic fertilizer through a natural composting process. In this way, school children wish to revitalize the impoverished soil and reduce pollution in their town, but also to raise their fellow citizens’ awareness of the importance of the environment.

The “Živko Ljujić“ school from Nova Varoš, through its project of keeping a “carbon diet”,  will motivate fellow citizens to save energy on a daily basis. The “diet” they are proposing means that the citizens of Nova Varoš will use their bicycles or city transport as much as possible, turn off lights, chargers and electric devices when not in use, close taps when the water does not need to run, use energy-saving light bulbs, and care about energy efficiency in their homes in other ways.

Children with special needs from the Leskovac school “11  October“ will make objects from the materials that would otherwise end up as waste – they will make decorative vases from old bottles, baskets from aluminium wires, jewellery from paper and plastic, as well as leaflets on environmental protection, which they will present to the Leskovac pupils and their fellow citizens. Their aim is to demonstrate to their peers and the citizens of Leskovac how they take care about the environment.

In the schools that won the top three places in this environmental competition, workshops were organized in which the pupils, through video games and interactive activities, gained knowledge on how a campaign to raise awareness about the environment can be conducted. When the schools’ mini environmental projects are completed, the jury will select the competition winner to be awarded RSD 100,000.

With the support of the European Union and Swiss Government, the campaign “Where is your threshold of responsibility?“ is being conducted through the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES, in cooperation with the consulting agency Executive Group and the citizen association Generator from Vranje.

Media contact:
Dušan Lopušina, Executive Group
Tel: +381 11 328 4488
Mob: +381 60 70 71 085
Email: dusan_lopusina@eg.rs