No to Poverty – Yes to Labour

The opinions of the article do not necessarily reflect the position of Trajectorya. This post is the result of a co-operative learning exercise developed by participants of the Training Course Key Rights, Human Competences (Catalonia, October 2011).

An example of  Youth Work for employment of young people with fewer opportunities

Project “No to Poverty – Yes to Labour”

It was a national youth initiative of the Youth movement for development of the rural areas in Bulgaria.
The participants were 12 young people from the rural municipalities Botevgrad, Pravets and Etropole.
The main aim was reduction of youth unemployment among the Roma through their active involvement in forest protection activities.
The objectives are:
To introduce Roma students from Primary School in Lopyan village to the significance, functions and problems of Bulgarian forests on-site in non-formal setting;

How did we come up with the idea for the project
-Over the last years, natural disasters destroyed over 1 550 hectares of forest ecosystems only in Etropole Mountain. These forests need to be restored
– Students in Lopyan village are mainly Roma. They start families right after finishing their primary education. Meanwhile, they can’t manage to find jobs on the labour market and so they live in extreme poverty and social exclusion.

ACTIVITIES:
1. Get to know the Bulgarian forest and an area destroyed by natural disaster
2. We gathered forest seeds and fruits
3. We cleaned the gathered seeds
4. We planted the seeds
5. We took care of young forest saplings
6. We planted trees in denuded forest area
7. We carried out landscaping in our villages

IN CONCLUSION …
… Imagine that after a day of digging in mud and fight with stones, roots, and grasses stand up and slide the sight in hundreds of small brushy trees that somehow confused are nestled among their new home thanks to your efforts. And next to them dozens of small “green” youngsters with smiling faces and glowing eyes … the feeling that you will experience can hardly be described, but honestly  IT’S REALLY WORTH IT!

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