The environmental program has united educational institutions from 46 countries around the world, including schoolchildren from the Miory district

The children, together with their teachers, are participating in one of the most interesting environmental programs for children and adolescents, "Green Schools," which unites over 40,000 educational institutions in 46 countries worldwide, from Great Britain and France to Morocco and the Republic of South Africa, including more than 250 schools in Belarus.

Students of Chepukovskaya Secondary School (Miory District) can not only casually name about a dozen species of herbs, wildflowers, or nesting birds growing in the vicinity of their native village but also accurately state when coltsfoot and wild strawberries bloomed last year, when ripe acorns began to fall from the oak trees, when the titmouse sang its first song, when the cuckoo started cuckooing, and when bumblebees flew out to inspect the gardens and meadows that had awakened after a long winter. There is nothing surprising in this, as the children, together with their teachers, are participating in one of the most interesting environmental programs for children and adolescents “Green Schools”, which unites over 40,000 educational institutions in 46 countries worldwide, from Great Britain and France to Morocco and the Republic of South Africa, including more than 250 schools in Belarus.

— We joined the program in 2010 and received the necessary equipment for observing wildlife at the same time. We conducted our first research in 2011, — says Elvira Khakhel, biology teacher and project curator. — And last year, we received the official status of “Green School” and the corresponding diploma.

The children are studying how different birds use school buildings and the school grounds, compiling a catalog of local flora and fauna, and analyzing changes in ecosystems and various natural complexes on the school territory based on eyewitness accounts and photographs. High school students, one might say, observe the state of a red ant hill with scientific interest. How do the diameter and base area of the dome, the volume of the spherical segment change? Are they growing or, conversely, decreasing? If they are growing, it means everything is fine: the conditions in this part of the forest are favorable, the ant community is healthy, and there is enough food for it. They also observed the nesting and hunting habits of the white stork. In addition, the children are engaged in volunteer activities in cooperation with the NGO "AakhavaPtušakBaćkaŭščyny" — participating in the monitoring and restoration of the Yelnya bog, building dams, and observing migratory birds.

— An equally important area of work for our "Green School" is informational campaigns, — the interlocutor continues, — including those on the topic of rational energy and water consumption, and waste management. And today, it is not enough for only children to participate in them, so we try to draw the attention of parents and, in general, the residents of the village to these problems.

It remains to add that the “Green School” in Chepuki is not the only one in the Vitebsk region. Ten more kindergartens-secondary schools in the Miory district and four in the Sharkovshchina district have diplomas confirming their participation in the program. In general, the development of the network of “Green Schools” is being carried out in our country within the framework of the EU/UNDP project “Assistance to the Development of a Comprehensive Framework for International Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection in the Republic of Belarus” (“Eco-Partnership”).

Tatyana Gornova, "Vitebskiye vesti"