Five years of “We do not have a spare planet”

A network of eco-schools is being established

One of the most important future activities of the civil society organization OHO within their programme “We do not have a spare planet”, is to create a network of eco-schools in the country that would initially include 20 schools from urban and rural environments. The network will be mutually connected through exchange of information among the students on the projects and eco-actions they would carry out at the schools. The idea is to connect the network with the similar networks in the neighbouring countries, especially with the countries where the same programme is carried out, and in the near future with the already-existing European eco-network of schools.

The programme “We do not have a spare planet” has been realized for five years now in all primary schools in the country. By means of interesting and easy-to-remember colourful games, the children learn about the ecology and the environmental protection, as well as about how to act preventively to save the environment they live in. For the elementary pupils, the programme foresees a game and commenting on the OHO calendars’ illustrations, which are distributed in schools every year, as well as discussions with the teachers on what ecology is, on the planet Earth, who is the eco-girl and the eco-boy and other topics that interest the youngest looking at the calendars’ illustrations.

The organization OHO has existed since 1999, the year when the project and the programe “We do not have a spare planet” began as well. From the very beginning, our goal was to bring these topics closer to our target group – the children, but also through them, to their parents and teachers. The project has been implemented in Macedonia, it was shortly implemented in Kosovo and, at the moment, it is being implemented in Serbia. A team of five people is usually engaged and responsible for the planning of the programme and creating the materials, but many others are involved as well. Since 2002, the biggest donor for our activities is the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, but we also receive help from the Ministry of Environment and the Bureau for Educational Development. The programme materials are prepared in all languages spoken in the country and are distributed for free to every child in the language it uses” – says Aleksandra Mladenovska, project coordinator.

 

S.N.