17. 03.2022
On the occasion of the International Recycling Day, in cooperation with the Center for Affirmation of the Roma-Egyptian Population CAREP and the Youth Club Bar, Help organized an action to clean the City Beach. Apart from Help and CAREP, activists of the Bar Youth Club and high school students also took part in the activity.
With this action we wanted to point out the importance of collecting and separating waste and recycling for the preservation of the environment. Bar, as activists, volunteers and municipal representatives who hosted us told us, is one of the cleanest cities in Montenegro, but much remains to be done to begin the systemic process of waste separation and recycling.
The next step of our action in Bar was to hand over the bins for waste disposal for recycling, plastic, paper and glass to the Gymnasium ‘’Niko Rolović’’ and the High School of Economics, which are located in the same building. The principal of the Gymnasium Marija Đonović gladly joined Help’s mediators / volunteers in installing waste bins in the school yard.
The school principal Đonović told us that we arrived at the right time with the donation, since the student council was already considering the idea of buying waste separation bins.
Pupils of both schools in one building, together with the administration, are working on maintaining the building from the inside. The yard that surrounds the school, although green, is much harder to maintain because the school is not fenced, so the park is available to everyone and it’s not treated properly – as a public good, but the management of both schools together with students are trying their best to maintain it. As you will see from the photos, the interior is beautifully painted, and they also have an inner green oasis, which includes probably the oldest ficus in Montenegro.
As Ms. Đonović told us, the ficus was brought in 1972, when the school, which was founded in 1920, was moved to the current building by the principal at the time. Take a look at how the 50-year-old ficus looks today as well as the students’ works in the photos below.
We ended the action in the meeting room of the Municipality of Bar, where we talked with the representatives of the Municipality about the importance of recycling for environmental protection, but also the possibilities that are opened by this action day.
It was mostly talked about how to move from symbolic and individual actions to a systematic solution to the problem of waste separation and recycling, what are the possibilities of the city administration, why previous attempts at separation and recycling in this city failed and how to revive the process.
It’s crucial to raise awareness of citizens about the need for proper disposal of garbage, and also separation and recycling.
U petak 18. marta, na Međunarodni dan reciklaže smo u Nikšiću gdje ćemo u saradnji sa Omladinskim klubom Nikšić i srednjoškolcima čistiće šetalište oko Crkve, Muzeja i Gradske kuće sa početkom u 10 sati. I tamo ćemo uručiti Srednjoj stručnoj školi kante za reciklažu a potom održati tribinu o reciklaži, kao važnom procesu za budućnost održivog ekološkog razvoja.
