Many people
in Slovakia consider early autumn to be the best season from all. So do we.
Besides vineyards and apple orchards full of sweet fruit, it is also the
greatest time to spend outside. It is not so hot anymore, but still warm enough
to sit & lie down in a park or a meadow. That was one of the reasons why we
opted to organise our traditional annual events - Development Days - in
pretty nontraditional way. Outside, closer to people we wanted to reach, in a
park, square or river bank. So we did.
But our
weather preferences and public space option was just little fraction of wider
story. We also needed to identify some development topic which is easy to
"sell" to people out there in the streets, but also kind of topic
which could easily enthuse other NGOs working in the field to participate
together with us. Finally, after long and arduous brainstorming sessions, we
came to conclusion. What is needed for everyone, but not everyone has it? No,
it is not money. It is much more essential than
that. It is water.
Thanks to
this well-considered option we were able to engage 7 other NGOs - our
member organisations (we are NGDO Platform) - to participate in the campaign,
which we have named There Is No Life without Water. They were these: eRko
Dobrá novina, ADRA Slovakia, People in Need Slovakia, Integra Foundation,
Caritas Slovakia and UNICEF Slovakia. All of them are not only very active
in the field of development in general, but they are also deeply involved in
water issues in global South countries. Building and servicing wells in
desert part of Kenya, planting mangroves by the Indian Ocean, providing water
and sanitation to those in need.
Campaign consisted of various elements, but the most important and publicly visible were three afternoon events in three main Slovak towns - Košice in eastern Slovakia, Banská Bystrica in the centre and Bratislava in the west of the country. We, together with dozens of volunteers, have dressed up in yellow t-shirts, blown giant yellow jerry can resembling those jerrycans used in dry regions of global South, took other normal-sized yellow jerry cans to one hand and information flyers to other hand, and went directly into the crowd. Explaining, introducing, chatting, having fun and education at the very same time.
Those who
are interested in the atmosphere of the event can watch this short video.
And here
is some basic information about the campaign:
campaign public events took place in
Košice on 8.9.2017, in Banská Bystrica on 9.9.2017 and in Bratislava on
13.9.2017 (find pictures gallery below)
more than 100 volunteers were directly
involved
www.bezvodyniejezivot.sk - website where you can find
all the information needed
there were 5 media interviews provided by
organisers, and series of articles mentioning campaign and events
campaign was coordinated by Slovak NGDO
Platform, but co-organised by 7 other NGDOs in the name of Media 4
Development project
