Within the project “Ecogardens in our kindergartens“ approved by the European Union as part of the Erasmus + programme, the secondshort term joint staff training event was held.

The training was held in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria and organizer of the event was NGO CSEG.

The lead partner of the project is Town Ludbreg, and other partners are Kindergarten “Radost” Ludbreg, Lucera d.o.o., Kindergarten “Radost” Bulgaria, Kindergarten „Pavlina Veljanova“ from North Macedonia, Communal public utility Vodovod Kochani from North Macedonia, LAG Kochani and Center for economic growth and development from Bulgaria.

The project teaches young children about the ecological challenges facing the world today and shows them how, through a recycling and waste management project, they can help address these challenges by composting food waste that will be used to grow fruit, vegetables and flowers in their schools’ gardens. Implementation of the project activities will lead to establishing of the strategic partnership between different type of organizations (local public bodies, kindergartens and civil sector) gathered together to give their contribution for enhancing the quality of early childhood education.

The main aim on this project is to develop age appropriate framework to teach pre-school children about reusing and recycling much of the waste they daily produce and improving the quality of work. This will be realized by increasing of the kindergarten’s teachers competences and skills for development of own approach to importance of waste selection and recycling, as essential concept for assisting them to encourage the pre-school children to undertake their own pilot projects especially in using and promoting of composting and production of eco-products.

On trainings teachers were educated on the use of ICT tools as innovative educational approaches to discuss issues related to environmental protection and waste management; examples of good practices from other kindergartens in the field of environmental protection were presented and teachers worked on the Handbook for educators from kindergartens.

Project team members from public companies, local governments and kindergarten directors worked on the Strategic Document. A strategic partnership document will be the basis for transnational cooperation in the field of education among the various types of organizations between regions and local administrations of Pazardzhik, Kochani and Ludbreg. The strategic document will consist of three chapters. The first chapter will contain an analysis of the current situation in pre-school education at the national and local level with an emphasis on the analysis of pre-school education in the cities of Ludbreg, Pazardzhik and Kochani. The second chapter will include topics of common interest in ecology and environmental protection, while in the third chapter will be developed an Action Plan with specific activities and specific measures to be undertaken to further developing co-operation among project partners.

This is the second short-term training held under the “Ecogardens in our Kindergardens” project. The first was organized in Macedonia, in the town of Kochani. The aim of the first training was to present the main principles of waste disposal, to explain the way of composting and the establishment of eco-gardens in kindergartens.

The next training, and the last, will be held in Ludbreg in August.