Sketches around the world

In Slovenia, the « Sketches around the World » program is being organised by Veolia transport.

For us, the schoolchildren of class IV C, the most spectacular progress to have an effect on our town over the last few years will have been the opening of the high school.

Our example of progress already achieved:

In the past, high school students from our town had two options:

• Either these young students could study in the high schools in the towns of Postojna or Sežana - in which case, they had to get up very early because their train left the station at 6 o'clock in the morning,

• Or they could go to the high school in Ljubljana. In this event, they had to leave their family and live in student accommodation which was really expensive.

For a short while now, our town has had its own school. The young people in our town have more time to rest and study. The parents are also satisfied, as their children's education now costs them much less.

However the beneficial effects of this nearby school do not end there. Since it opened, jobs have been created, and the residents of our town can use the computer room and a good Internet connection.

Our town has changed considerably since the school was inaugurated. We are really happy with it all!

Our idea for progress:

Behind the town hall in Ilirska Bitrica - our town - there is a park that has over time been neglected. We are particularly fond of this place. We can do sport there, and there is also a truly magnificent fountain with fish in it.

Our dearest wish would be to redevelop this place. We are for that matter convinced that this would not require excessive amounts of time or money! It just needs cleaning up and making safe...

While talking about our idea for progress we tried to decide which people would be most likely to be interested in this park. We thought about people in wheelchairs and all the elderly people in the retirement home not far from our school... We thought to ourselves that these people deserved to have somewhere nice not far from where they live where they could go to relax and get out and about.

We are convinced that all the residents in our town would be proud of this place and that they would love to have fun there. This project would have an amazingly beneficial effect on the health of the residents!

In our opinion, sustainable development also means solidarity between generations and between people!"

This year the UNESCO associated school network as well as the eco-school network lend their support to the program.

More than 900 children from Ilirska Bistrica, Koper, Ljubljana, Maribor, Novo mesto and Piran have entered the contest.

• Thierry RIJCKBUSH LOUIS - thierry.rijckebusch@connex.si
• Nada UDOVIC - nada.udovic@connex.si
• David GLAVINA - david.glavina@connex.si
• Viktorija BROZOVIC - viktorija.brozovic@connex.si
• Andrea PLUT - andrea.plut@connex.si
• Janez Habjanic - janez.habjanic@connex.si