Description
The project addresses the need of raising the awareness of young people on environment protection, sustainable development and biodiversity, providing them with knowledge to become actively involved in the life of local communities. The project aims at identifying and involving the existing school eco-clubs in the work of the Eco-parliament. First, the school eco-clubs across Bulgaria will be identified, contacted and included in a database. Second, 240 members of 80 eco-clubs will be trained. The training includes 3 modules on environment (protection, sustainable development, NATURA 2000, biodiversity), law (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) and leadership (organizational and communication skills). Finally, the students will demonstrate their knowledge in awareness raising campaigns on sustainable development and in a national school competition on biodiversity. The project will benefit not only the target groups of children and students but also the local community.
Summary of project results
The project addressed the need of raising the awareness of young people on environment protection, sustainable development and biodiversity, providing them with knowledge to become actively involved in the life of local communities. The project helped to create a database for school eco-clubs in the country - something that had not been done before but is necessary and can be used by institutions and NGOs. The project increased the capacity of the students and teachers from the eco-clubs involved in the trainings and created conditions for the expression of the creative abilities of the children and youth in the four directions, thus enriching their knowledge in the field of biodiversity. Participation in all project activities was based on the voluntary principle, and the activities were planned and carried out in a logical sequence. Traditional and interactive forms of learning were combined in the trainings. The youngsters were listeners and at the same time worked in groups, participated in discussions, trainings and role-plays, and solved cases. The results of the training sessions were distributed among the local communities through the methods of "peer education" and "children train parents". The main target groups - children and youth, as well as the additional target groups - local communities (eco-club leaders, teachers, principals, parents, etc.) and public administration officials (municipal environmental experts) actively participated in the project activities and together organized information campaigns for sustainable development. The project enriched all its participants with knowledge and skills, contacts and information, ideas and positive experience. It made the participants more self-confident and active in the social life. During the project, friendships and partnerships were established that are the basis for future cooperation.
Summary of bilateral results