On 20th of February in school #7 of Yangibazar village of Tashkent region, a regular event organized by the GEF SGP and Youth Environmental Network of Uzbekistan (YENUz) was held [read here about the previous one].

This time 51 students were suggested to learn more about the problem of hard domestic wastes, energy efficiency and preservation of water resources, step by step through bright presentations and fascinating environmental games.

Guys were divided into 5 teams. For doing this the participants were given various environmental advices on several problems: energy efficiency, hard domestic wastes, biodiversity preservation and preservation of water resources; and one more command was given anti-environmental advice. Thus, on that day 5 teams competed under the names “Energy”, “Garbage”, “Biodiversity”, “Water” and “Anti”.
At the beginning the students were proposed the game “Clean your city from waste”. It seemed that everything was simple: each team was given one region of the city with its garbage which had to be got rid of within the shortest period, without taking it out from the territory of their city. After a couple of minutes crumpled newspapers, packs and other waste were in hands of the residents. The participants were disappointed to know that they did not get rid of waste in this way, the guys started throwing the garbage in the neighboring districts. It should be mentioned that there were other unusual methods of getting rid of the garbage. For example, the team “Water” assigned one of the participants a victim who took all garbage and was expelled from the city area.

Soon, after the heated garbage fights one of the city districts was hopelessly stuck in a bunch of garbage and its residents argued desperately with their neighbors and called their trainers for fairness. It should be mentioned that there were noticeable capacious boxes near the city one of which was used by the team “Energy”. And after short thoughts and disputes the city finally gathered its garbage in the boxes.

Then the participants were surprised again when they were told that it was not the best solution for the problem and proposed them to sort the garbage so that paper, plastic things, material and plastic bags could be recycled. And the participants fulfilled this task brilliantly.

After the game the school children were introduced with the presentation on hard domestic waste where they could get information about this problem and its solutions.

Then after a short entertaining game “Energizer”, in the next presentation guys got information about the problem of energy saving and knew about the origin of energy, how people consume it and how they could economize it in their houses. This information was useful for guys in the next game Housing problem.

In this game each team got a scheme of two-room apartment which should be equipped so that the maximum amount of energy could be saved. The participants worked hardly and it was difficult for the jury to determine the best work where the team made less mistakes in placement of refrigerators, writing tables and other furniture and home appliances.

After solving of the Housing problem, the school children started to study the problem of preservation of water resources in their next presentation. The guys were told about the quantity of clean drinking water which humankind can consume and how it is consumed and polluted in life. Of course, the participants were offered simple advice about careful water consuming in houses and its less pollution. Also, the guys were to participate in a small contest: each of the teams was given 5 similar pictures where they should find 5 mistakes in water consumption. And again, there was a team-winner which fulfilled the task successfully.

And the most interesting part was in the end. The point is that the peculiarity of this event was the fact that the trainers who held it together with school teachers, made environmental mistakes without saying to school children about it. For example, they turned on the light while there was good day light and “forget” to turn it off, threw away bags through the window, drank water from the disposable cups.

Overall, they made 10 “faults”. On the last stage of the event the teams were to specify all these mistakes, write down how they should have acted and why. It should be specially mentioned that the guys were attentive and most of “violations” were noticed. Especially the trainers were glad with the team “Anti” which added to the mistakes the arrival of the organizers in the car. The organizers didn’t take this mistake into account.

Then, finally, the winners were determined and they were the participants of the team “Garbage”. The guys were given prizes: the discs with the film “Home: the rendezvous with the planet”. Small prizes were also awarded to all participants of the event.

In the end of the event the guys were proposed to make a small home task: observe the same mistakes in their everyday life and tell their friends and relatives about how to behave and why.

And I believe that guys will fulfill this home task excellently!
Irina Gilfanova,
Information Unit
YEN Uzbekistan

The organizers of the event: the GEF SGP – Alexey Volkov, YEN Uzbekistan –Mun Yuri, Maleeva Alexandra, Skhinas Lidiya, Gilfanova Irina
The original version of article you can find on the website of Youth Environmental Network (YEN)

Read also: “The brochure “Let there always be...” found a response in the Tashkent region.”