Romania & Moldova

We have been working with our colleagues at Prietenii Pamantului since 2002 on educational projects in Romania and Moldova, helping train primary and secondary school teachers in more interactive approaches to education. Over 500 teachers have taken part, and 4,500 students ranging in age from 6 to 18 years.

Primary and secondary teachers at a workshop in Galati ('Galatz'), Romania, finding out about how to design and plan environmental projects with their students. The workshop was run by our colleagues at Prietenii Pamantului.

We have also been providing guidance on how to plan and implement environmental projects in the community and how to teach about civic education, and we have supported over 70 student projects concerned with subjects as diverse as food additives, fast foods and healthy living, cosmetics and toiletries, agricultural chemicals, plastic packaging, detergents, pollution, domestic waste and waste water treatment.

Children analysing water samples taken from their local river in Beresti. They were particularly interested to find out more about the environmental problems caused by releasing detergents into the water without treatment.

All of the projects were carried out by multi-disciplinary teams of teachers, and a number involved collaboration between teachers from different schools. The work as a whole was designed to build confidence, encourage initiative and improve the communication skills of students and teachers, as well as strengthening links between schools and their local community. It also helped raise public awareness of important environmental issues. Schools also made contact with local service providers, environmental inspectors and officials from their local authority.

Young Actors: Eco-Club Pinul in Galati prepared a short play on pollution and with the help of a professional actor performed it in front of 50 teachers.

Prizes

Twelve of the school projects went on to take prizes in regional environmental competitions organised by the Ministry of Environment in Romania, and eight took 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in the national run-offs, with several more getting mentions.