By Bruno Hasa (YES 2012-2013, Albania, hosted by PAX in Menasha, WI)

Inspired by Global Youth Service Day, Erta Prifti (YES ’15), Katerina Hatija (YES ’14), and I decided to organize a project called TreEnvironment to raise awareness among young people about environmental issues.  Three training sessions were organized in three different schools in Tirana: Zyber Hallulli Orphanage on May 2, Sami Frasheri Middle School on May 3, and Hasan Prishtina Middle School on May 5.

At all three schools, students were warm and friendly. Each training began with a small discussion about what participants knew about environmental issues, their concerns on the subject, and what action they were currently taking to protect the environment.  After this warm-up discussion, we divided the group into two teams for a quiz with questions related to the environment.  In another activity, we gave participants pictures of various objects and asked them to sort them by the materials the pictured items were made of: plastic, wood, paper, or aluminum.  This activity helped them to practice for effectively using new material-specific waste collection bins recently introduced by the Municipality of Tirana to promote recycling.  Each training ended with everyone planting trees and flowers in the school yards to serve as a reminder of the constant work we all have to do to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment in the future. 

In total, approximately 80 students participated in this program.We were amazed by the energy and arguments of participants, who came up with many of their own ideas on how to protect the environment. Participants agreed that they as individuals should be the first ones to take action to make the changes needed to protect and preserve our greatest resource, the environment.