On the 24th of June the children will present a brief program, dedicated to the herbs and the nature, a lot of poems, riddles and songs. Together they will plant flowers and herbs in front of the youth club in the village and will celebrate the good work with home-made tea and sweets. Every child will leave the feast with a little box of tea and a little pot with a flower, which to plant at home. During the celebration will also be given the start of a contest for drawing or essay on the subject “What did I learn about Enyovden and its mysteries”.
A rich program gives the start of the summer classes for the children of the region. In a large part of the Veliko Tarnovo villages there are youth clubs, through which association ”Opportunities” wants to give meaning to the children’s vacation days. For this purpose the association is organizing a travelling eco-library for the students from age 7 to 12. “Opportunities” already generalized the school lists of works for reading during the summer and bought part of the books. They will be placed at the disposal of the local clubs for reading and exchange. Discussions after the reading of each work will be organized for the children. The literature conversations will take place once a week in the five built-up areas – the villages of Belyakovec, Ledenik, Shemshevo and Sheremetya, as well as at the Green summer study room in Veliko Tarnovo.
During the weekly meetings educational films about the nature, the ecology and the human activity in the region will be shown to the children. The organizers of the eco-library have bought also seasonal flowers and shrubs, and they are to be planted together by young and old at appropriate spots, specified in advance by the mayors of the build-up areas. During the classes outdoors the children will participate in the care and treatment of the plants. There will be a little book about the nature for every child.
In the summer the children will also visit the local sights and afterwards they will describe their experiences in essays, which they will be presenting at collective readings. During the excursions the children will be able to pick herbs and flowers for herbariums. At the end of the summer all herbariums will be shown at an exhibition, accompanied by a tea party. Again the children will provide the herbs for the party, and the adults will sweeten the event with home-made honey.
Every week the travelling eco-library will gather groups of 15 to 20 children according to the following schedule: Monday – Veliko Tarnovo, Tuesday – v.Belyakovec, Wednesday – v.Sheremetya, Thursday – v.Ledenik and Friday –v. Shemshevo.
After the conclusion of the project of association “Opportunities” a number of benefits are expected for the local community, which numbers around 2 500 people, and a direct improvement of their lives will feel at least 500 children and adults. The final aim of the travelling eco-library is not only to increase the knowledge of the children about the literature, the region and the local sights, but also about the nature, the useful plants and the care for them.
The project is realized with the financial resource of this year’s edition of the competition “Do it yourself”, after the initiative ranked among the winners in March. The competition for small green ideas “Do it yourself” provided micro grants to 24 green projects in the whole country. “Do it yourself” helps the citizen’s green initiatives and is organized by ecological association “For the Earth”.
About the creators of the initiative:
The organizer of the project is association “Opportunities”, created in 2008 in Veliko Tarnovo. The target populations of the association are the women – in their role as mothers, professionals and social figures; and the children and their health, upbringing and education. “Opportunities” are engaged with the problems of the women, their equality in the society and the family, as well as with the possibilities of the mothers to devote more time to the raising and upbringing of the children. During the summer “Opportunities” will help the families by organizing and giving a meaning to the free time of the children. At the end of the summer the association will plant trees, donated by the local forestry. Thus they hope to make a start with the cultivation of small local groves, which everybody will bestow care on. The local community centers will also receive books, donated by the home libraries of the association members.
The summer eco-library for young and old sets out on its road in Veliko Tarnovo region
