News

Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania is striving to increase the city’s resilience to natural disasters associated with climate change. Concurrently, the city is prioritizing increasing and improving access to green spaces for local residents. The city is in particular concerned with the flood prone Debren River area, which is home to marginalized communities experiencing a number of social and environmental challenges. Kids living in the area are exposed to a degraded urban environment and have little access to green space. 

To address these intertwined socio-ecological challenges, the municipality of Sfântu Gheorghe, the  Environmental Protection Agency, Covasna partners, the Vadon Association, and the local Social Directorate are working together to offer local kids engaging environmental education opportunities. March featured an especially successful event, which welcomed 20 children aged 6-12 living in the nearby social blocks to the Hunting Museum near Debren Creek for a set of educational and interactive environmental activities.

The purpose of the gathering was to instill in the children a love of nature, respect for the environment, and an appreciation for the importance of nature conservation. Environmental education activities included a visit to the hunting museum and a drawing competition on urban greening. The children’s drawings have since been put on display in the window of the Mayor’s office, on full view for all city residents. 

Ultimately, CLEVER Cities Sfântu Gheorghe intends to work with the local Roma community to design and implement nature-based solutions that improve living conditions. Education is an important part of this process, as it is an opportunity to elicit ideas and preferences from the community, and to foster personal connections with the local environment and a commitment to nature conservation.