One small step towards sustainability

Jul 10

Written By Organisation For Social Innovation ARNO

Radviliškis Lizdeika Gymnasium is implementing the ongoing Erasmus+ project "Social Entrepreneurship - Education Development". This phase of the project is coming to an end, and according to the planned activities, all partner schools (Skopje Secondary School, Rijeka Secondary School) organized a seed planting campaign (symbolically "Seed" - the abbreviation of the project name).

At the beginning of May, several project participants traveled to North Macedonia for training on sustainable development, ecology, social responsibility, and entrepreneurship. We applied the knowledge and skills gained from the training in our school: on 16 June, we gathered the gymnasium community for a SEED campaign. The event was opened by Skirmantė Petraitienė, the deputy of Lizdeika gymnasium, who summarized the activities of the project and emphasized the importance of raising awareness and responsibility for our environment, being empathetic to the people around us because it enhances our overall well-being, which is expanding not only in our city, country but also in Europe and the world. The gymnasium project team invited some guests to make the event more meaningful and broaden the knowledge of our community. One of the guests was Giedrius Zabulis, a forestry specialist from Radviliškis Regional Branch of the State Forest Enterprise. He gave a brief presentation on how the concept of forest maintenance has changed and how important it is to preserve forest biodiversity. Salvinija Vaičiūnienė, a geography teacher - expert from Gražina basic school and a former head of Radviliškis Ecology Centre was also interested in the event. She was very happy that her former students continue to learn how to be socially responsible and empathetic to their environment and people, actively cooperate with young people from other countries and together search for solutions to global issues. Asta Šmukštienė, a biology teacher, presented her research work on air pollution in the gymnasium, which she had carried out with the pupils of the first gymnasium class. The study was fascinating because the pupils observed and described how plants react to pollution and used this to determine the level of pollution in our gymnasium, which is not very high in our gymnasium. Teachers Jurgita Caporkienė and Živilė Laurutienė presented a series of integrated lessons - a study on fast fashion and its damage to the earth. The teachers used mathematical calculations to show how important it is to reduce consumerism, as it takes a lot of resources and energy to produce one pair of jeans. The audience was surprised by this data. Goda Kvedaraitė, a third-grade student, shared the benefits of the project training and her experience on how participation in the project made her reflect, reconsider her actions and make responsible decisions. At the end of the event, all guests planted seeds, the symbol of the event. This is a small step towards a sustainable community in a sustainable environment, encouraged by the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project.