The World Abaza Congress, together with Colors of Nations, held an environmental campaign in Gagra.
The World Abaza Congress held two environmental actions in Gagra. The WAC team, together with the students of the Gagra Abkhazian School, planted trees on the school grounds, and then, together with Colors of nations, held an eco-lecture for local residents.
Trees as a symbol of life
The representative of the World Abaza Congress Izolda Khagba said that in the first half of the day the Congress team, together with the students of the Gagra Abkhazian Secondary School No. 1, landed an alley of Chinese juniper Strickt on the school grounds. According to Khagba, the tree species was chosen by the school authorities, and the Congress arranged for their purchase and delivery.
"We have planted 20 trees. It was a joint work that should teach our young people to plant trees, that it is important to protect the surrounding nature, which we are very proud of in Abkhazia," said Izolda Khagba.
She recalled that this is not the first tree-planting action of the World Abaza Congress.
The school principal Hana Gunba expressed gratitude to the WAC. According to her, the action brought much joy for children and teachers.
"Planting trees is a symbol of life, growth, a symbol of the fact that where there is a child, there is always hope for a brighter future. Therefore, I personally associate today's event in our school with a happy tomorrow. On behalf of the teachers, parents and students themselves, I want to say a big thank you to the organizers. Thank you to everyone who works in the Congress for the fact that you carry out such educational work among students," said the principal.
The students took an active part in the action. Someone brought water for some of the already planted trees, others dug holes, the rest covered the already planted juniper seedlings with ground.
11th grade student David Benia expressed his delight that he managed to plant trees in his native school. He spoke with excitement that very soon he would leave his native school, but the trees that he planted with his friends would remain.
"Such actions and events are very necessary, because it is very important to pay due attention to nature and the world around us, as this is our future. I am very glad that I took part in this action. It really instills a love of nature," David Benia shared his impressions.
Taking care of the world around us
After planting trees at the school, the WAC team moved to the Gagra embankment. The second part of the eco-action took place there and it was organized jointly with the Colors of nations.
The action was an interactive open-air eco-lecture, where everyone was invited.
The main speakers of the lecture were the well-known Abkhazian ecologist Mikhail Kiriya, the head of the Gagra municipal unitary enterprise "Clean City" Darrel Dzhenia and an eco-activist, representative of the public organization "Young Guard" Dinara Sichinava.
Mikhail Kiriya spoke about the pests that exist in Abkhazia, about how they are being fought with in the Republic. He also informed the participants of the lecture about the risks of bringing and planting plants from other countries. Darrell Dzhenia told where the residents of Gagra can turn if, in their opinion, some plants are dying, and the intervention of specialists is necessary. Dinara Sichinava shared her personal experience of forming the right eco-habits and her own vision of how one can step by step make these habits an integral part of his life.
"People took this information with great interest, it's nice that someone learned something new for themselves. We hope that the information will be disseminated and will be useful for the townspeople", commented on the speeches of the speakers Izolda Khagba.
At the lecture, the organizers of the action also announced that a trash can for collecting batteries will be installed in the central town coffee shop "Brioche".
"Anyone can bring and leave used batteries in the trash can. Very little is said about the problem of disposing of batteries. As it turned out, even among our guests, few knew that an improperly disposed battery can cause colossal harm to the environment. We, in turn, undertake to arrange the maintenance of this can. As it fills up, the Congress will empty the trash can and take the used batteries to the Institute of Ecology in Sukhum, where they are collected for further disposal," explained Izolda Khagba.
Colors of nations, together with which the lecture was organized, is a fairly well-known company in Abkhazia, whose actions are always in the public eye. The main ideology of the company is to talk about problems through contemporary art.
The co-founder of the company, Anna Savilova, noted that their team has been dealing with environmental issues for a long time.
"We raise and resolve these issues through art. Through art, you can talk about absolutely any topic and our actions are proof of that," Savilova said.
Cooperation with the World Abaza Congress arose as a result of the usual friendly conversation of the founders of the company with Izolda Khagba.
"We said that we want to promote eco-issues. It is important for us to talk about it. It happened so that the Congress is also not indifferent to these issues," said Anna Savilova.
The eco-lecture was attended by the Deputy Head of the Gagra District Administration Alkhas Bartsyts. He stressed that similar projects should be implemented more often. Bartsyts expressed gratitude to the World Abaza Congress and the Colors of nations.
"They (WAC and Colors of nations - ed.) are actually worried about the overall environmental situation in our country. We all understand perfectly well that tourists come here for the purpose of recreation (that is, health-improving rest - ed.). We have all the conditions to ensure this, including nature, which allows us to receive a big flow of tourists. However, it needs care," said Alkhas Bartsyts.
The Deputy Head of the administration drew attention to the fact that mainly young people took part in the action and noted that "it is gratifying to see so many young people at eco-actions."
"Taking this opportunity, I would like to address the residents of the Gagra region and the whole country as a whole. We must take an active part in preserving our nature," Bartsyts said.
Main surprise of the evening
After the eco-lecture, the WAC and Colors of nations prepared a surprise for all those present.
A young ballerina Diana Apsava entered the stage, which was completely covered with jeans (a few weeks before the start of the action, the WAC and Colors of Nations announced the collection of unnecessary jeans - ed.) and performed a dance that, according to the organizers, symbolized the relationship between people and nature.
During each movement of the ballerina, her snow-white dress and everything around was filled with special paint from small ball-tanks that complemented the dancer's costume.
"The dance invited people to think about how we pollute nature. It talked about how we - beautiful and smart - do not think much about the fact that every day, living our ordinary life, we inflict irreparable damage to nature," Izolda Khagba shared the details.
Anna Savilova, in turn, said that it was no coincidence that jeans were chosen to decorate the stage.
"The production of jeans causes environmental harm to the ecology (due to the peculiarities of the production of raw materials, dressing and dyeing of fabrics, etc. - ed.). Of course, we are not calling for abandoning this fashionable item of clothing. We are talking about giving jeans a second life, and we will show that today. We will take these jeans, process them and make beautiful products out of them, which we will sell, and send part of the funds to protect the palm trees," she said.
After the action ended, active participants were given seedlings of date palms, which were grown from seeds by Astanda Dzheniya and Roman Leyba from the Public Ecological Organization "Apsabara".
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