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Final Report for Vilkija Region Environmental Programme for Schoolchildren

This project was made possible through a donation by the Moriah Baltic Mini-Grant Project of ECOLOGIA

Vilkija is 30 kilometres from Kaunas - second largest city of Lithuania. Many teachers of Kaunas region participated in the workshops on the environmental issues, and more schoolchildren took part in the environmental summer camps. The main goal of the project was to increase interest in environmental activities. The simplest way to attract children is to show them the difference they can make themselves by cleaning river banks, forest, taking care of the historical mounds. Staff of the local museum of the Ethnic Culture organized ethnic culture evenings for schoolchildren after their working day of "practical environmental protection".

Both the teachers and students tell that environmental programs are interesting and very needed. It is important to emphasize that the methods of practical environmental experience are not well known in Lithuania, and some initiative groups such as Vilkija have just started to implement such experiences. Since this project received very positive responses of the participants, as well as local press, Department of Education of Lithuania finally noticed the environmental activities of schools, and decided to support them. The Kaunas region's government officially decided to open a Centre for Environmental Studies and officially pay a salary for one person (before that people worked as volunteers without any support of the government).

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