Today, on April 6th we visited the “Alternative Education Academy” in the International Scout Center Rustavi and introduced our work.
The Academy is working on an exchange project “Skillful You-th for Better Future”, in which 28 Ukrainian, Dutch, Polish and Georgian young people are involved. One of the goals of this project is to develop leadership skills among young people and promote their motivation to make the change they desire.
Within the framework of our visit, we introduced the role of civil responsibility and activism to the participants of the project on the example of “Gavigudet”; We talked about what air pollution in Rustavi means, what path the movement has gone through in the last 5 years, and how it was able to raise public awareness and bring the problem to decision-makers through an advocacy campaign. We also talked about the results of our activism. We shared the information that compared to previous years the situation in the industrial zone has improved and half of the big polluters have already complied with the regulation that came into force in 2021 regarding the installation of self-monitoring. We also emphasized why installing this tool is important and that these changes did not come quickly and easily.
In addition, we talked about the impact air pollution can have on human physical and mental health and what danger we face when the level of pollution exceeds the permissible norms.
Also, we talked about the activities of “Eco Center” in the direction of raising environmental awareness and creating a relatively clean and safe environment in the city.
The meeting turned out to be very interesting. Although the participants did not know the context of our problem, they listened carefully to the problem our city is facing and asked us a number of questions about the current situation and challenges related to our problem.
The informational material is prepared by “Eco Centre” in the framework of USAID Civil Society Engagement Program, funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The contents of this material are the sole responsibility of the “Eco Centre” and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or EWMI.