smART Democracy!: Creativity to promote Democratic Participation

– that’s better than

Air pollution
Air pollution in my town

My decision to help nature.
We have a lot of problems with cars outside our school. Quite simply, there’s too much traffic outside the school every morning and every afternoon. Parents drive their children to school – right up to the gates. There isn’t enough space to park so they just stop in the road as near to the school as they can get. It’s very dangerous for the students who are trying to cross the road. But that isn’t the only thing – it’s very unhealthy. The air is polluted because of the traffic. It’s disgusting. Well, we need a bigger car park. That’s probably the easiest thing. But I also have some more ideas. I’d like to have two or three school buses to bring the students to school

all these cars everywhere. And I’d also like more students to cycle to school. And of course, I think more of our students should walk to school. I walk everywhere. So we can reduce air pollution and the result will be healthy pupils.

Teodora Valkanova, Bulgaria

Plastic pollution

Ivan lives on the top of the floor of the building. He is 8 years old, very charming boy who loves two things more than anything in the world – candies and chocolate. It is not healthy but the main problem is that each time Ivan eats this unhealthy food he doesn’t bother looking for a dust bin to throw the wrapper into. Instead he just throws it on the ground. All neighbors are tired of his habit. Even younger boys and girls are very angry. One day we decided to teach him a lesson. We collected all wrappers from the pavement. Then we dumped them in front of the Ivan’s door. Unluckily Ivan’s dog started playing with wrappers, sniffing at them and eating. The dog was choking. Ivan and his father saw the dog. They rushed off with him to the vet. The doctor got out the wrapper from dog’s throat. The dog was saved. Ivan has learnt his lesson. He promised to be more careful and to throw the wrappers in the bin.

Pantelea Kartuleva, Bulgaria

Everyone is different, but we are all the same!

We are not all born equal. Are best friends always similar? Do they like the same things? Or are they sometimes different? I spoke to earlier today with my classmate. Look at the Mitko’s answer: Hi, I’m Mitko. My best friend is Ragip. He is from Turkey. He has lived in my town since last year but he is a boy like me. Ragip’s a great friend, he’s really funny and interesting, but we have lots of arguments because we like different things. You know. He likes computer games and skateboarding but I like museums and reading. But he’s interesting and I like that. If we do our homework together, he gives me good ideas. We’re both quite easy-going! It’s strange because we look similar too – we’ve both got blonde hair and blue eyes!

Ivana Popova, Bulgaria

SOME people are negligent

Can you imagine how much trash is produced by 7 million people in Bulgaria? Did you ever think about where the trash goes? Some of the stuff that we throw away are toxic to our environment, like plastic. They contain chemicals that can leak into the ground and contaminate the water we drink. These chemicals can even reach our oceans, rivers and lakes. This is the reason why you should practice the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We are encouraged to minimize the waste that ends up in the landfills so we won’t contaminate our environment. If we really need to throw out our stuff, we should do so properly by bringing them to recycling centers where they can use the materials to make other new products. This is effective way to manage our waste and keep them from reaching our landfills.

Diana Valkanova, Bulgaria

Olaria on Water pollution

What will we do when we run out of clean water to drink? What will happen when the oceans, rivers and lakes are so polluted that all the fish and aquatic animals die? Water keeps us alive and it’s very important for us to have clean drinking water. There was a time when we can safely drink from our faucets, but now, we don’t know if the water is really safe to drink and we buy purified water in bottles.
Humans are the cause of water pollution, directly and indirectly. We mindlessly throw our trash in the ocean, not thinking about what that may cause. Ships that carry oil can have accidents, spilling all that toxic oil into the ocean, causing havoc in our marine ecosystem and polluting our waters. Do you know that there are areas in the Pacific Ocean where there are “islands of trash?”
We need to stop throwing our trash into the oceans and dispose of them properly on land.

Vasilena Tincheva, Bulgaria