One month ago, I made the first step in the OAZA office here in Zagreb which is an oasis literally – full of plants and flowers. And why is that? There is connection for sure and Udruga OAZA is an association from Zagreb, Croatia working on promoting ecology, sustainability, gardening, and vegetarianism.

Together with Evgenija, I’m a part of this journey – a 6-week project called “Green Fingers” which is coming to an end.

As part of a team of international volunteers from Italy, Greece, France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands, we are engaged in activities dedicated to promoting sustainability as well as vegetarianism and gardening. The association OAZA collaborates with primary schools from Zagreb and outside of the Croatian capital and we are implementing workshops with the primary school children on various topics such as language and culture, sustainable resources of energy, gardening etc as well as we are working in the school gardens on planting plants, maintenance of the plants already present in the gardens, creating a composter etc.

Thanks to Mile & Jasmina from OAZA – we learned how to actually do gardening and planting as well as we learned more about which plants are good for us, which ones are eatable, how to recognize that a tree is dying etc. We did also an amazing activity – birdwatching where we learned more about the birds present in the most beautiful park in Zagreb – Maksimir Park.

In order to promote our work and the ESC program, volunteering & youth work, me and Evgenija met the H.E Milaim Fetai, the Macedonian Ambassador in Croatia where we discussed more about how importance is the engagement of young people in civil society sector.

Such an experience!

Sofija Stojanovska