SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

We also organise a major clean-up event every April. It is attended by villagers who diligently remove rubbish and weeds throughout the village. This year, another mini-clean-up took place before the annual clean-up.

At a meeting of the association, a villager suggested that in the area where the regional road passes under the village and there is a lot of traffic, the area around the road should be cleaned before the grass grows over and hides the rubbish that is now on the surface. Passers-by throw a lot of cans and other rubbish out of their vehicles. There has also been a strong storm in the area recently, which has carried torn plastic bags into the ditches.

The majority agreed to organise the campaign, so the idea was implemented. On 22 February 2025, a few villagers gathered at the meeting point. Among us were three very young people: a primary school student Naja, a student Maja and her boyfriend Urban. 

There was a lot of rubbish, so we spent some time picking it up. The atmosphere was working and the bags were filling up. It was very pleasing to see these young people working diligently without any instructions. They were filling the bucket and then shaking the rubbish into the bigger bags. No words were needed, because they knew what had to be done. 

Maja, Urban and I picked up litter together. During the conversation, I asked Maja: "How come you and Urban decided to come to the clean-up, given that you are young and maybe you'd rather go hiking?" 

She replied, "My mother told me that today is an action day and I don't care what kind of environment we live in, so we came. I thought more people would come," she added. 

"Ma, that's really nice," I replied. Her words touched me. Later, I asked her if I could quote her words in the story, and she agreed. I had some other commitments that Saturday, so I left the clean-up early.

As I was walking down the track, a tractor came up behind me, picking up the sacks we were filling. I looked where it was going and in the distance I saw that it was going to a field where there were some people. There was a young mother with two small pre-school children on the edge of the field and everyone was rushing to fill a sack. 

I walked past, said hello and all three said hello back. It is good to know that we educate by example. I am convinced that good habits and awareness come with good examples set by parents for their children. Three hours after the start of the campaign, as I was driving my car from home, I met a group of people who had finished their work and had gone for a little refreshment. There were many bags filled with rubbish on the tractor and the satisfaction of the people who had done the work was evident.

Mateja Valbatič