May 15 2003
(Andrea
Saula)
Slug: Kids in north and south Mitrovica mobilized to
clean up the city.
Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with David Balham and
Sputnik Kilambi.
Kosovo may have a lot of problems for such a small
place, but in some areas at least, solutions are not difficult to find. Take
the perennial issue of keeping Kosovo clean for example – all it requires is
imagination, the will to follow through, and a little bit of muscle power – and
of course, good will. Mitrovica certainly got a much-needed facelift this past
weekend when kids from both the north and the south pooled their efforts and
took to garbage bags, rakes and shovels with a vengeance.
The Mitrovica clean up was organized by the city’s international
administration with support from KFOR, some European missions to Kosovo and
even private enterprises.
CUT 1: We are cleaning the city today. We were
helped by KFOR. They brought us rakes, t-shirts, gloves, equipment etc
CUT 2: We are here to clean the neighborhood. The
garbage is in our way especially when we play, there’s no where to play
hide-and-seek. Some Serbs have come with us, I thank them for coming to help
us.
CUT 3: today
we are here to clean the city together with the Albanians. This is a good
thing. We are clearing away the garbage.
CUT 4: Of course it bothers us, that’s
why we are here today, to clean up the place in order to create a place where
we can play and be healthy. We have come today with some Serbs, we thank them,
we have become friends and we play together.
Hundreds of kids took part in this operation, the first
of its kind to cover both parts of the city. One of the rare occasions when
both Serb and Albanian kids worked together and were part of the same
initiative. And UNMIK’s public affairs officer who organized the whole
campaign, Sonia Blaha was justifiably proud at this coming together.
Sonia Blaha: It was impressive, the whole
operation. They had complete teams all over the place. Something like 15 jeeps
in the South and 15 jeeps in the North. We had trucks, heavy machines. So the
kids were really here. It was symbolic, to pick up garbage, but main task was
done by KFOR.
The main idea, she adds, was to teach the kids not to
throw garbage all over the place but also to educate their parents.
Sonja Blaha: I tell the people, please let’s
make a tradition of a clean beautiful city, and that’s the best inheritance
they can give their children and I guess it will take a bit of time…(edit to)
We have to think about our kids, not only a future generations but also of
dangerous epidemics.
If parents really care for their kids, insists Sonja
Blaha, the environment should take top priority. Maybe they should listen to
this kid.
Serbian boy:
Let us all take shovels, rakes and start cleaning. There is no other way to
clean up the place. And the people, they shouldn’t throw garbage from the
windows and dump their rubbish beside the garbage bins instead of inside the
containers.
Another feature of the campaign was that schools were
also roped in by organizing a poster contest. The response was overwhelming,
perhaps also because the prizes were so attractive. Snazzy bikes, games and
T-shirts. Certainly the nine winners
from both communities weren’t complaining when they received their prizes from
UNMIK chief Michael Steiner.
Michael Steiner: let me just say what we’ve seen
here today that children have helped to clean Mitrovica. We can see the
difference today. It shows that sometimes the adults can learn from children.
And to hammer that message home, Mitrovica has been
plastered with hundreds of posters in Serbian and Albanian, including one done
by school children. The message is simple really – if you love your city, keep
it clean.
That does it for this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks
for listening.