Participation

BACK to Participation

 

“Nature in Collage” – Grocka, Serbia

 

 “Nature in Collage” is the first “Youth in action” project implemented in Grocka, Serbia, and I can tell, based on all the participants reactions, that it was a real success.

It is hard to get 40 people crying at the end of 10 days in a project like this but in Grocka it happened. No one wanted to leave, that’s how good this project was. We met incredible people from Serbia, Malta, Croatia, Turkey, Poland and Macedonia and it only took us a few days to become friends, despite our differences – cultural/social background, age (17-38), language (English level differed from one person to the other).

The theme of the project referred to ecology so we learned more about pollution and ecological issues in Serbia (but not only). We visited the garbage dump of Belgrade and seen (and smelled) the devastating impact of pollution – Belgrade city doesn’t has a selective way of recycling garbage so that means that the soil is severely affected by the residues. We also visited the Nuclear Institute of Belgrade and learned out the newest solutions for neutralizing polluting substances. In the end, we got the chance to visit an experimental agriculture site where endangered species from Danube were preserved and  multiplied.

These field visits helped us get a better understanding of the project’s topic and become aware of the importance of finding and implementing practical measures to fighting pollution. Also it proved to be an inspiration for the workshops – where we had to express through art a message meant to help the local community understand the necessity of recycling in order to stop pollution. We   created collages, drawings, sculptures from recyclable materials – paper, glass, plastic, strings, wires and so on. We’ve been guided through the creation process by 2 artists and had a exhibition at the end of the 3 days of workshop.

The Romanian team’s activity in the project got an excellent feedback and the Romanian team leader was designated as the representative of foreign teams to open the  exhibition. We had excellent accommodation, the organizers tried their best to make the participants feel welcomed and fulfill all their needs. We also benefit from the support of local community which supported the events organized in the project. We even had a meeting with the local authorities and got the chance to discuss with the mayor the issues concerning pollution we observed in our field visits. The mayor promised to get more involved into solving these issues or at least raise this problem with higher authorities.

All in all, this was a very fulfilling experience that gave us the chance to both learn about a very important topic nowadays – pollution- and meet young people from Europe that share common interest in finding an effective Way to protect the environment. 

Adina Badaluta, team leader