On January 29, the Media Pont organization held a lecture at the “Mihajlo Pupin” High School of Electrical Engineering in Novi Sad, with the aim of introducing high school students to the concept of Green Growth Awareness Days, as an activity of the “Engaging Youth in a Digital Future 2.0” project. The project is implemented in cooperation with partners from Lithuania, Slovenia, Greece and Spain and is part of the Erasmus+ program, KA3, co-financed by the European Commission. The “Greenovate” platform was also presented as a place to inform about the activities of young people across Europe in the field of youth engagement in local communities.
Students attended a presentation where Nataša Heror from Media Pont presented the United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 and the European Green Deal. In this way, they were introduced to the importance of working on creating sustainable agriculture. The importance of this topic is reflected both in the necessity of agriculture for the survival of all people on the planet, as well as in the large amount of resources it requires. They were invited to reconsider their way of eating and how the choices they make affect their environment, and thus their future. Through the 17 goals of sustainable development, the students learned about the efforts of the United Nations in order to preserve the environment and thus ensure a better future for the entire global community. By getting to know this topic, they were invited to think about the future that could await them if such big steps are not taken towards sustainability, but also about the one that environmental engagement at all levels can provide for them.
Milica Živković from the Institute for Regional Development introduced high school students with a realistic example of how a small number of people with great desire can make a change. Through a presentation and two short films, she introduced the event participants to her work on two projects, both focused on the area of the Kraljevac Special Nature Reserve. The topic was the work she’s doing with her colleagues to preserve the biodiversity of the landscape, which is home to several rare species in our region. By presenting an underground passage that was made so that the turtles could pass from one place to another in a safe way, she actually showed them that all needed to make a real change in the world is to have a desire, an idea and persistence. A similar lesson was shown through the example of how the acquisition of 30 sheep was responsible for the preservation of the European souslik (lat. Spermophilus cittelus), a strictly protected species, the disappearance of which would mean the ruin of an entire ecosystem.
Saša Cvetković, one of the founders of the organization Our World Our Rules (Naš svet, naša pravila), pointed out by explaining to the students that when she was as old as they are now, out of a desire to better her environment and bring ecological awareness, she founded an organization that currently deals with many major problems of the local community. The lesson that the young people left their high school ceremonial hall with is that power really is in the hands of the individual and that they can do extraordinary things for the community, starting from their local, all the way to the global level, and that there are many people in this world who are ready to help them in doing so.
The project “Engaging Youth in the Digital Green Future 2.0” is implemented within the Erasmus+ program, KA3 and is co-financed by the European Commission.
This event received the support of the Swiss Government through the project “Together for an active civil society – AKT”, implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and Civic Initiatives (Građanske inicijative).
The event was organized with the financial support of the Government of Switzerland as part of the “EU Green Agenda in Serbia” (EU za Zelenu agendu u Srbiji) initiative and the Embassy of Denmark in Serbia.
Source: Media Pont
Photo: Media Pont