"My Day" Belgrade Event

On World Environment Day June 5th, ISC, with support from the Balkan Community Initiatives Fund (BCIF), Green List of Serbia, Young Researchers of Serbia and the Scout Organization of Serbia, as part of the 11-city tour of the Oplaneti se! Recycle campaign, organized the final local action day event in Belgrade at Republic Square and Kalemegdan Park. At the opening of the event, over 1200 young participants stood in the formation of the universal symbol used to designate recycling, thereby symbolically sending a message to relevant institutions, citizens and other actors in society to take an active role in solving the problem of waste in Serbia. This high-profile event kicked off at the Republic Square, where opening remarks were giving by Nada Dumic, Representative of the City Council of Belgrade, Michael Harvey, USAID Mission Director, Ivana Vranjican, Manager for Environmental Project at Telenor Company, and representatives of BCIF, Young Researchers of Serbia and the Scout Organization of Serbia.

Following the opening ceremonies, all event participants walked in procession through Knez Mihajilova Street to Kalemegdan Park, where six environmental-themed games were setup throughout the park to educate young people and local citizens about the importance of recycling. Each location focused on a specifc environmental theme and/or activity designed to draw citizens further into the ecological movement: 1) waste selection, 2) natural energy resources, 3) environmental habitats, 4) interactive environmental games, 5) songs about the environment and 6) an informative stand for partner organizations and private sector companies to hand-out promotional materials about the work that their organizations are doing to help the environment.

Zarko Paspalj, Vice President of Olympic Committee of Serbia, joined the participants to throw the first recycled can into the basketball hoop, which marked the start of the ativities. After the first recycled can swished through the net, many more cans followed throughout the rest of the day. One of the most popular activities with the participants was the use of recycling androids (containers designed to look like the famous robot from the Star Wars Trilogy - R2D2 or "Artoo-Detoo") that attracted large numbers of children. Hundreds of children feed the robots with many different types of waste (plastic bottles, cans and old magazines), after which the robots conveyed environmental-themed messages to the children about what happens with the waste they deposited.

The day's activities conclude at 5pm in front of the famous Victory statue at Kalemegdan Park. During the event, employees from Telenor, Coca Cola, Ernst and Young, Bozic and Sinovi and others also participated in the event. Additionally, over 150 volunteers from the Green List of Serbia, Young Reseachers of Serbia and the Scout Organization of Serbia particpated in the event. The majority of the participants were children aged between 7 and 11 from over 40 municipaliteis and cities throughout Sebia. In total, the event gathered over 1200 participants throughout the day.

The event was covered on seven media outlets, including: TV B92, Sport Network, Infobiro, e-TV (aired on FOX TV), Evronet, TV Zvecan and Sporski Journal newspaper.