2011 Geberit-Pangaea Kraljevo School Project

Following the 2011 Geberit-Pangaea Kraljevo School Project that took place in August and September 2011 in Serbia, the team of seven Young Explorers and Michael Scholl, Pangaea Young Explorer Program coordinator, who took part in the project, decided that this should really only represent the start of the project...

The investment from Geberit in the complete renovation and installation works of six of the sanitation facilities in two adjacent primary schools in Kraljevo, IV Kraljevacki Bataljon and Svetozar Markovic, Pangaea's collaboration with Mike Horn's partner and the dedication of the Young Explorers into this European project following the earthquake that shook this region of central Serbia and destroyed many of the local infrastructure in November 2010, makes this an ideal and local, in the European sense, Act Project.

The Young Explorers spent three weeks in Kraljevo, working with the students from both schools on different eco-educational workshops about pollution, recycling, water management and general eco-sensitive awareness, designing and drawing posters to raise awareness, establishing a PET recycling network in at least one of the schools with a dozen special PET containers spread around he halls.

The YEPs also organised for over one ton of school material and books to be collected before the project and raised close to 2'000 Euros as well. This money was used to buying three new basketball boards and nets, a dozen new basketballs, a laptop computer and a video data projector for the school's conference hall. Pangaea and Mike Horn sponsored the three week project in Kraljevo, the twelve PET Recycling bins and purchased twelve sturdy garbage bins to be disposed around the schools yards in an effort to make students more aware of their actions.

Geberit had scheduled November 2011 as the official inauguration of the new facilities, and this was also a perfect opportunity to investigate and discuss the possibility to continue the project into 2012 with our local contacts.

Tuesday November 22, 2011

Pangaea YEP Program coordinator, Michael, flew to Belgrade in Serbia to investigate the possibility and options for a continuation of the project into 2012, and take part in the official inauguration of the sanitary facilities of the schools organised by Geberit in Kraljevo.

Michael met with local Geberit partners, Zorana and Alexander, who were key to the success of the project in August/September in their assistance and translation skills. He then drove four hours to the westernmost region of Serbia to visit the Tara Mountain National Park the following day.

Wednesday November 23, 2011

Michael meets the officials at the headquarters of the National Park in Banija Banja, a small town located nearby the entrance to this largest park in Serbia. The team responsible for the park, Ranko Milanovic, Ana Panic and Borisa Colic, met Michael and discussed options to potentially organise a reunion for European Young Explorers and an EcoCamp for students from the primary schools of Kraljevo in 2012.

The Pangaea Tara Mountain EcoCamp 2012...

We then continued our visit into the National Park to discover the park's attractive nature under a misty, foggy, cold, windy and rainy atmosphere... we visited the housing facilities available to students for such camps as well as the park's information centre and conference centre. The housing is idealy situated in the center of the park, and offers two comfortable houses for 12 and 18 people.

The Park offers many ideal options for children, students and certainly Young Explorers to Explore, Learn and Act. The Park presents an interesting and exciting diversity and range of wildlife, fauna and flora, with Wolves and over 40 Brown Bears roaming the park bordering with neighbouring country of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nature paths criss cross the Park offering many options for different lengths walks, while river rafting in the river Tara with its highest canon in Europe will be the highlights of any visit.

Tara Mountain National Park, Serbia

Thursday November 24, 2011

Zorana and Alexander drove from Belgrade to Kraljevo along with Swiss Geberit representative Mr Roland Hoegger.

A series of meetings and interviews were planned with the Swiss Ambassador Mr Erwin Hofer, the Mayor of Kraljevo Mr Ljubisa Simovic, Geberit's Swiss representative Mr Roland Hoegger, Geberit's local partners from their different regional offices from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and from the project local partner MSP (Municipal Support Programme). Following a first informal meeting was then followed by a meeting in front of the different national and regional media.

The whole delegation then left the municipality and walked to the two primary schools, IV Kraljevacki Bataljon and Svetozar Markovic, for an official visit and inauguration of the sanitary facilities that were built by Geberit. Everyone was impressed with these new facilities that ranged in style and decoration, and offered the students of both schools the best in quality, eco-friendly water management systems with automatic sensors, and the durability necessary for a longterm use in a school.

We were then invited in the conference centre of the IV Kraljevacki Bataljon school to enjoy a show of songs in Serb, German and French by students, and a welcoming message in German by the students of the school's German Language Club.

Pangaea, Mike Horn and especially the Young Explorers were mentioned many times in the speeches of both school principals as well as by Geberit.

Sanitary Facilities Inauguration at Kraljevo Schools

Friday November 25, 2011

Michael met with the principals of both primary school principals, Ms Marina Vulcinic of IV Kraljevacki Bataljon and Ms Dragica Spagic of Svetozar Markovic, to discuss the project and the obvious keen interest to pursue the project into 2012. Both principals gave an extremely positive feedback about our visit in August/September, with both the children and teaching staff asking about the Young Explorers and Pangaea.

It was also a pleasure to discover the newly inaugurated German Language Club corner in IV Kraljevacki Bataljon's conference centre with its dedicated library including all the books we had brought with us in August, as well as a collection of books and DVD about Mike Horn and his expeditions. The basketball board had also been installed in the backyard of the school. Michael had also brought the new laptop and the data projector for the school.

Unfortunately, this three day visit was too short to spend enough time with all our friends we had made in August and September, but we managed to meet up, catch up and discuss our future involvement. The two German teachers as well as Nadja came to meet with Michael, and we all missed the seven Young Explorers who could not make it for this short visit: Alex, Leeni, Simon, Aga, Gosia, Iga and Luana.

Geberit-Pangaea Kraljevo School Project 20111125