Students from the technical secondary school “Gostivar” applied at home what they had learned from the trainings in Greece.
Two groups of students from the municipal secondary technical school “Gostivar”, representing Volunteers Centre Skopje, participated in trainings dedicated to climate change through Erasmus+ program organized in neighboring Greece. Seven students were part of a training within the “Think Green” project, with another fourty other peers at the “Nissi” camp in Raches Fthiotidos, Greece, from September 21 to October 2. Previously, a group of six students from September 7 to 19 participated in the “Nightmare” project at the same place in Greece.
The trainings of the two projects unite a serious part of the European youth from Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Lithuania, Serbia, Croatia and Romania as one and under the same ethics and values that will at least guarantee that there will always be a wave of responsible and active people who will not allow the destruction of mother nature, living in a sustainable and healthy environment.
The main goal of both projects was to raise awareness among young people about the effects of climate change and global warming and their reduction. After their return, the participants shared their impressions from the two trainings through a conversation.
– We are a group of motivated students who want to secure the future of our planet. Everyone has to contribute, to help prevent global warming. Stopping it is in our hands, that’s why we joined hands against climate change, using the methods we learned in the trainings. We have raised the flag for action and we must take care of our future. We immediately applied what we learned from the project in our city of Gostivar. We organized an action to collect waste and plastic packaging, which we handed over for recycling, and held a presentation about the project at OSTU, where we shared the experiences of the projects with our classmates. This is just a small step to raise awareness among the citizens of our city, and we will continue further with new eco-actions. We are very satisfied with the training and the organization, as well as with the facilitators and Volunteers Centre Skopje, we are grateful to them for the wonderful unforgettable experiences and for the acquired new friendships from the participating countries – said the students.
Apart from the methods to deal with the climate phenomenon, these students during their stay in the camp had the opportunity to learn more about the topic, and to participate in a series of workshops to know how to deal with similar situations and find solutions. They acquired good and useful habits such as cleaning and collecting garbage on the beaches, maintaining a clean environment, preparing food, but they also played sports and had fun at the same time. During the trainings, intercultural evenings were organized where each country had its own presentation. Our participants successfully promoted our country with a presentation of our beauties, with food from Macedonian products and with folk dances. In addition to the main organizer of the training, the Educational Organization “Sharp Minds” from Greece, Volunteers Centre Skopje was also a partner.
