Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 in more than 150 countries around the world, and the official celebration began in 1992 when a long-term program to promote sustainable development was coordinated during the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. At the suggestion of the Bolivian government, in 2009, the United Nations General Assembly declared April 22 World Earth Day.
As active members of our local communities, and in line with the very concept of marking this very important date, our scholarship holders have contributed to raising awareness of the importance of caring for planet Earth. Many scholarship holders of the Hastor Foundation have decided to mark this day as part of the April volunteer activities, and we single out the most interesting ones below.
Scholarship holder Amina Lendo decided to actively contribute to the celebration of Earth Day, together with a small group of the youngest members of local community. The first activity involved talking about planet Earth, exchanging ideas on ways to protect the environment and awareness of the impact of global pollution on people and life itself.
They decided it would be great to clean up the creek that flows through their local community. Together, they managed to clean most of the stream and thus beautify the landscape of their community. Amina claims that it was very pleasant to spend time with children who, regardless of their age, are very active members of the community and are especially interested in improving it whenever they can.
One of the activities of our scholarship holders on the occasion of marking this date was the collection of junk yard from the pool of Pliva lake near Jajce. Ajka Čamdžić, a Hastor Foundation scholarship holder, took part in this activity, revealing: The situation on the ground was very critical due to the excessive amount of garbage in the lake itself. We spent almost six hours in special rubber suits in the lake, trying to collect as much garbage as possible in bags, properly deploy and store it. The lake is still not cleared of garbage, there are still a few kilometers of shore left that are strangled on garbage. Still, she says she is proud of this action during which hundreds of garbage bags were collected and properly disposed of.
Sevla Kopić, together with her cousin, decided to volunteer in the local community on Earth Day by cleaning the Jošanički potok in Vogošća. Jošanički potok is a beautiful destination surrounded by forests and green areas. It is approximately 3.5 km away from the center of Vogošća, which requires a little more physical activity, and Sevla reveals about the situation they found: On the way to the source of Jošanički potok, we saw a lot of garbage in the water and around the barbecue. Although a sign was placed on the road to Jošanički potok that garbage disposal is prohibited, unfortunately, we encountered a lot of it.
After cleaning one part of the stream, as much as they could because of all the trees, Sevla and her cousin headed back to Vogošća and sorted the wrongly disposed waste in recycling containers. We ended our small but useful adventure happy and satisfied that we managed to mark Earth Day at least to some extent.
Alek Isaković
