»With their exciting and informative newspaper articles, the students have demonstrated impressively for the second time, how interesting and important the research of environmental issues can be - particularly for young people. The close international cooperation gives young journalists a particularly important virtue for life: tolerance towards other people and cultures.«
With these words, the Bulgarian President Georgi Parwanow praised student groups from Bulgaria, Germany, Croatia, Romania and Hungary for their commitment in the DBU project »Environment Builds Bridges«. The students came together with their teachers in the presidential palace in Sofia to receive the awards for the best newspaper articles.
This year's winners are Fremdsprachengymnasium Petar Bogdan, Montana (Bulgaria), Herman Otto Gymnasium, Miskolc (Hungary), Liceul Teoretic »Adam-Müller-Guttenbrunn«, Arad (Romania), Gimnazija »Matija Mesić«, Slavonski Brod (Croatia), Domgymnasium Verden (Germany), Taunusgymnasium, Königstein (Germany), Tannenbusch-Gymnasium Bonn (Germany).
»Environment Builds Bridges« is a European environmental and media project. 25 schools from Germany and further 25 from Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Turkey and Hungary formed bilateral partnerships and work together with the theme »Sustainability and the Environment«, »Europe« and »Media«. The project groups of the partner schools visit each other and get to know the countries and their people. During their stay, they research like »real journalists« on sustainability and environmental issues in the region of the hosting school. Each project team reports the results in its native language for a newspaper in Germany or the partner country, respectively.
In this way they raise not only their own environmental awareness but also that of the readers. At the end of each project year, the best journalistic performance is rewarded.
»Environment Builds Bridges« is an official project of the UN Decade »Education for Sustainable Development«. It is sponsored by the DBU and the Institute for the objectification of learning and testing procedures (IZOP) and implemented by the Center for Environmental Communication (ZUK). In addition to President Georgi Parwanow, also the State Presidents of Germany, Croatia, Romania, Turkey and Hungary took over the patronage.
