The strength and will that a person carries inside him is perhaps most strongly manifested in the difficult moments that life brings. The first days of the corona virus pandemic encouraged us to change some lifestyle habits. People experienced more free time differently for themselves. For Štefan Perica, the period of the pandemic made it impossible for him to do his work, but at the same time it made him realize that free time is his most valuable resource. During a walk in the forest with his little sister, he noticed what everyday busy life does not allow us to pay attention to – nature was filled with garbage. A day later, he invited his sister and cousin to join them and together they collected the scattered garbage. The small village of Nova Kapela, not far from Slavonski Brod, was precisely the ground on which, during the pandemic, the cleaning of nature within the family began, and which continued to develop into broader actions not long after. Symbolically, on Earth Day, they shared recorded moments from the actions with their friends on their Facebook profile and invited them to join them. After returning to Zagreb, Perica began to initially receive the support of the people closest to him, and then the story was covered by the media. Four years later, more than 1,700 people, who cleaned with him at least once, make up the community Cleaning Bearsof which Perica is the founder and president.
Although they looked at them strangely at first, it did not stop them from giving up, but encouraged them to continue even more confidently. As Perica states, continuity proved to be the most important factor, which is why they have implemented more than 400 cleaning actions so far. Their great support and support was the logistical help of municipalities, cities, communal services and others, without whose help it would not have been possible to transport and store the collected waste. Through time and the development of their story, the first sponsors and companies that wanted to cooperate with them began to appear, which financially facilitated the acquisition of the necessary equipment for the implementation of actions. Also, cooperation has been achieved with numerous organizations, schools, kindergartens, bookstores, and new messages and ideas regarding cleaning arrive every day.
IN FOCUS:
Larger group actions are organized almost every weekend throughout Croatia, but it should be noted that numerous clean-ups have also been carried out in other countries, from Georgia to Cyprus, through Tunisia and Gibraltar, to Greece and Estonia. According to Perica, what particularly pleases them, and which was the initial idea, is that people in different places gather almost spontaneously and on their own initiative, and often the youngest are members of the group. Although it is a joy to see a large number of people respond, Perica says that the most beautiful actions are done by up to 20 people, where there is no need to emphasize coordination, but the action itself turns into socializing and the opportunity to talk to everyone.
In addition to the actions they carry out, they also paid attention to the education of children in kindergartens and schools, which these institutions are increasingly interested in. However, it is still mainly about the enthusiasm of individual educators, said Perica and added that this should be systematically organized and not depend on inspired individuals.
Throw the cigarette in the basket – 100,000 cigarettes
March was the month in which the community Cleaning Bears celebrated its fourth birthday, but also celebrated the success of the campaign launched in September last year − Throw the chick in the basket. At the moment when the symbolic 100,000 cigarette butts were collected, an inscription was made from them THROW THE CHICK IN THE BASKET and it was exhibited on Ban Jelačić Square, which caused great interest. Numerous Croatian media covered this action, and they recently received an award for the campaign Green butterfly which it assigns Resolution Earthecological project Evening paper.
Prepared by: Katarina Vuinac
Read the full text in To the magazine of the Energy Portal, NATURE CONSERVATION.
Source: energetskiportal.rs
