October 4, 2013, Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast — The Green Consumer Week'2013 campaign "Environment on Your Plate" in the Yaremche Raion pais special attention to education of school youth. During the Week, activists of the MAMA-86-Yaremche environmental NGO conducted eco-lessons for over 300 students of educational institutions in Yaremche, Delyatyn, Mykulychyn, Polyanytsya, Tatariv and Yablunytsya.

The NGO carried out all of the campaign's activities, held within the framework of the Global Green Action Week, in close collaboration with the Carpathian National Nature Park.

According to MAMA-86-Yaremche Head Marta Korchemlyuk, the objective of the campaign was to explain how ordinary people can, in a simple and affordable manner, contribute practically to the cause of conserving the environment for the present and future generations. "In fact, it was a start of information activities that will keep on with the involvement of residents," she said.

The eco-lessons contents depended on the age of students. The high schoolers learned about basic aspects of sustainable food: definition of environmentally responsible nutrition, healthy food plate, health food pyramid, main approaches to choosing packaging materials, and ecolabeling.

The lessons with younger grades included an interactive quiz followed by a discussion on healthy and unhealthy foods and the harm packaging materials pose to the environment.

Teachers received information kits they will be able to use further on in extracurricular work.

Please see pictures from eco-lessons on the MAMA-86 Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.528015820614679.1073741850.190090101073921&type=3

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Green Consumer Weeks in Ukraine – week-long concentrated awareness campaigns aimed at popularizing environmentally responsible consumption and focused on one of important themes of sustainable consumption – have been carried out since 2012 by the Ukrainian National Environmental NGO "MAMA-86" with support from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and in collaboration with various partner organizations.

The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has been conducting similar campaigns in their country in October for many years running. These campaigns have helped significantly increase public awareness of advantages of environment-friendly way of living, develop a legal framework that encourages sustainable consumption and prohibits or limits supply of environmentally harmful goods and services, as well as form a circle of eco-responsible producers and sellers who, on their part, further the transition of the Swedish society toward more sustainable consumption behavior.