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Youth to Preserve Nature and History in Czech Carpathian Mountains

Region: Central and Eastern Europe, Czech Republic
Author: INEX - International Exchange
Consortium Member: EPCE Czech Republic
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $374 Collected: $374 Needs: $0
Result: To initiate an international summer camp of youth volunteers who will restore natural and historical sites, thereby catalyzing local preservation efforts.
Donors: Chenango Forks Model UN Club Members, Chenango Forks High School, Binghamton, New York [March 1999], with Virtual Foundation Matching Funds
Comment: The American high school students who chose to fund this project liked the idea of a teenage summer camp devoted to natural and historic preservation efforts. One expressed the wish to attend the camp himself.

Click here to see the Final Report for this project.

Organization:
We are located in the Czech Republic; we are an independent chapter of an international organization. We have 55 active members. Our main activity is organizing specialized summer camps for young people from all over the world in the Czech Republic, with the aim of promoting local revitalization efforts. We work in close cooperation with the Society of Sustainable Living, an expert organization focused on all aspects related to sustainable development.

Project Description:
The goal of the project is to interest and involve young people, from the Czech Republic and other nations, about our local life style and to promote revitalization efforts by local citizens. The summer camps aimed at such activities will be organized in the White Carpathians Biosphere Reserve - Tvarozna Lhota and Stary Hrozenkov. This region, on the border with Slovakia, is affected by people's emigration to bigger towns due to lack of jobs and hard living conditions. The program of the summer camps consists of voluntary work in the villages (repairs of traditional stone walls, crucifixes, fences, etc.), seminars with local and regional government officials, NGO leaders, traditional craft making, etc. The aim of such efforts is to initiate local activities and to be a catalyst for environmental and restoration projects in the region.

Timetable:

March - June	preparation of the summer camps; developing the programs with local mayors
July, August	summer camps

Budget: