During the three years we've been around we developed and implemented many projects, all of them taking us one step further on the way to educating, connecting and inspiring people. Below we are presenting a selection of them together with a brief description.
ECI Youth Forums
The ECI Youth Forums are highly interactive 2-day events that focus on: educating youth through visual, audiovisual and practical workshops and presentations; connecting peers with different lifestyles, interests, objectives and backgrounds with the purpose of them debating and discussing forum topics, exchange knowledge, experiences, practices and ideas; inspiring youth to take positive long term action, and to, regardless of their future occupation, become and stay committed to live and work in a environmentally responsible way. The Forums’ activities cover topics such as climate change, carbon footprint, renewable energies, sustainable living, corporate and governmental responsibility, community involvement or cooperative action both from global and local perspective (presenting a global overview of the issue, but also discussing and debating ideas and case studies relevant at local level).
The ECI Youth Forums are addressed especially to young demographics: teenagers, students and young professionals. The size of the events depends largely on the country/town/venue and may vary from 15 to close to 100 participants (primary reach). Both local and international speakers are invited to attend. The Forums are organized in 31 countries from Central and Eastern Europe to Central Asia and they will continue throughout 2012 as well.
For more information you can visit the deicated pages: http://www.eci-youthforums.info/ and http://www.nektarinanonprofit.com/search/label/ECI%20Youth%20Forums
My Planet and Me
My Planet and Me is a multimedia project intended to raise awareness about climate change issues and the need for each person to treat the environment in a positive way. Launched in April 2011, the project rolled out in 30 countries in Central and South East Europe and Central Asia. It targets general population, youth in particular, and through its programs inspires actions that would include anything from recycling, composting, low carbon travelling, to tree planting and installing solar panels.
My Planet and Me works with schools, bloggers, social networks and media to mobilize large demographics to act green and share their acts of green with others, through photos, videos and stories. The project is a part of Earth Day Network’s effort to collect on billion Acts of environmental service before the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20).
In June 2011, as part of the project, we announced the "My Design for My Planet" contest for designers and all creatives. Through this contest we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to visually express their views on environmental issues, nature and sustainability. The contest closed in September 2011, and the response we got was amazing: we have received over 80 entries, from all over the world - Philippines, Croatia, USA, Serbia, United Kingdom, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, India, just to name a few. You can check out the entries here: www.myplanetand.me.
Low Carbon and Delicious - the cookbook
In 2011 we published our first cookbook, “Low Carbon and Delicious”, which shares over 50 recipes from 17 countries around the Mediterranean, providing a simple insight of what “low carbon food” means and how anyone can make a positive impact on the environment from their own kitchen. A variety of recipes – from vegetarian to vegan – offers a great way to explore other cultures and climates, while having fun creating healthy meals. Our goal was to make a colourful, inspiring and simple-to-use cookbook with a low carbon twist.
You can check it out here: http://issuu.com/nektarinapublishing/docs/low_carbon_and_delicious.
10:10 and 10:10 teen
Nektarina Non Profit became an official 10:10 hub in June 2010 and started to coordinate 10:10 campaign related activities in 24 countries, from the following regions: Balkan & Adriatic, Mediterranean, Central & Eastern Europe and Russia. The campaign targeted four main clusters – individuals, businesses, schools and organizations. The aim was to inspire and help them take positive action towards reducing their carbon footprint by 10% during a period of 12 months. For more details about our work as 10:10 hub, visit the following pages: http://www.issuu.com/nektarinanonprofit and http://1010hubnews.posterous.com. For more information about the campaign, you can go directly to the 10:10 homepage: www.1010global.org.
As a part of the 10:10 campaign, in 2011 we launched the 10:10 Teen Project, which aimed at creating a new way for young people to interact, express themselves and be creative, all with the joint goal of reducing carbon emissions. Although the project targeted teenagers, it was equally open to anyone who wanted to join. Participants were challenged with simple, yet educational bi-weekly tasks related to carbon reduction. You can check some of the responses we got here: http://teen.1010global.org/.
Nektarina Visual Essay
In January 2010 we launched “Nektarina Visual Essay Contest” asking young people to join us and creatively express themselves on recycling, environment, climate change, human rights, etc. The objectives of the contest were: engaging youth into learning about specific topic important for the community / environment, education, Roma integration; acquiring visual research skills in gathering references from life, photographs, found objects, imagination, and memory; expressing thoughts in creative visual style that should be a learning tool for others; learning and applying the stages of visual thinking / problem solving / research / thumbnails / roughs / comprehensives; analyzing illustrations in terms of colour interpretation, the use of typography, layout and composition.
We received entries from 12 countries and we proudly presented them online: http://nektarinavisualessay.blogspot.se/.
Ever Green
Launched in December 2009, the Ever Green continued throughout 2010 and 2011. Focused on baseline education on climate change, recycling, renewable energies and reducing carbon footprint, our Ever Green campaign targeted primarily children and youth, but also the rest of the public.
The campaign provided extracurricular programmes and projects for elementary schools as well as for kindergartens. Activities included workshops and other similar educational activities where children could learn about all the above mentioned topics through interactive games, peer-to-peer education, creative expression and practical work.
Find out more: http://www.nektarinanonprofit.com/search/label/evergreen
Live & Learn
The campaign was officially launched in October 2009 and our objective was to promote and raise awareness on lifelong education, regardless whether that education is formal or informal. The project focused on several areas:
- Providing working women with opportunities to continue their education on various levels (foreign languages, computer skills, specific soft skills they need for work)
- Providing third-age generation with opportunities to connect with peers through different educational workshops and courses – gardening, arts and crafts, painting, ceramics, creative writing, hiking and similar
- Raising awareness among pre-schoolers, pupils and students on the importance of learning, exploring, experiencing and sharing knowledge
During 2010 we organized over 40 different workshops and courses for different age groups, providing thus new learning experiences for over 400 participants in 20 towns and municipalities. These activities helped participants not only to learn new skills, but also experience peer-to-peer education, improve their self esteem, enrich their social life and social skills.
Our work goes beyond the projects we develop: we try to inspire people to act in a responsible way, not only as part of campaigns and world-wide movements, but also in their everyday life, where the little things can make all the difference. We raise awareness, we educate, we connect, but at the end of the day what we hope to leave behind is an inspiration for people to get out of idleness and find their own way to help and make a difference in their communities and their environment.
This is why the feedback we get back from the public is very important to us. Whenever we organised a contest or asked people to send us examples of things they were involved in, we got a fantastic response, with lots of interesting insights. And we are just so pleased and grateful to see we have been a part of the inspiration that led to these actions.
For more of Nektarina's project work, you can visit: http://www.issuu.com/nektarinanonprofit/docs/nektarina_overview_march_2011/1
