River Jump! 3 Nations - 1 Nature 2015 is the follow-up project to River Jump! 2013 and 2014. As in the previous years we, the organizing border country teams from Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, provide nature loving youths from our nations environmental information on the endangered and protection-worthy ecosystem of the Morava-Dyje floodplains. Through numerous workshops and project-based activities we equip the participants, aged 16 to 25, with the tools needed to start their own initiatives and projects in the field of environmental protection. Together we learn, that each and everyone is in the position to impact our surroundings in a good manner. Therefore we brief our participants on a sustainable and eco-friendly way of living, and show them how to implement the green advices into their agendas. For this year's River Jump! programme, we put together numerous "action weekends", where we give 25 interested youths, on each turn, the opportunity to take action. Our well-prepared activities will range from clean-ups and canoe tours to educational weekends with current topics like saving food resources. We will invite experienced experts, who will share their broad knowledge on their specific fields. Our acting will mainly take place in the immediate surroundings, and some further afield from the Morava Dyje floodplains. This area by the way is not only of natural, but also of high historical value, since there were strict border regimes located up to the end of the Cold War. These events, at fascinating sites, serve for the youths to strengthen their bond with nature and make themselves ambassadors of the earth. We want the participants to grow individually and as a group through new experiences. This year we also want to focus more on our team itself. We want to do team-building activities - which is even more important in a trilateral team as ours that works closely together -, educate ourselves and give ourselves the skills that we need to implement the projects as professionally as possible. The overriding aim is to empower youths living around the czech-slovakian-austrian border to protect their surrounding environment from major threats like road construction, the planned conversion of the Morava river into a dead shipping channel,... We think that future generations should be able to see the precious and species-rich basin of the Morava-Dyje floodplains in its previous natural state. We like to think of these young people as ambassadors of the Morava-Dyje floodplains, whom we give first hand information and unique experiences. The idea is that they spread the word in their communities, to raise awareness of the ongoing issues and learn how to carefully interact with the Morava-Dyje floodplains. That is how we, the organisations and the local people, will continue to deepen the existing transnational cooperation. River Jump! is our opportunity to achieve our aims on a broader level as they are not limited by borders.
River Jump! 3 Nations - 1 Nature 2015 is the follow-up project of River Jump! 2013 and 2014. As in the previous years the international team is formed by 3 national teams consisting of Austrians, Czechs and Slovakians. The original idea to raise awareness for the endangered and protection-worthy ecosystem of the Morava-Dyje floodplains between Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia was the reason to work across the borders. The four main objectives were: 1. Promoting protection for the Morava-Dyje floodplains amongst young people 2. To show youths ways how they can actually get active and have a say in national and international environment matters 3. Building a platform that provides young people with all information necessary to start their own project 4. Education of our team and motivation for team-members to start follow-up projects The main idea to start this project had developed in 2012 in Vienna by Thomas Schallhart at the Rio+20 youth conference, which was organized by JUMP (Jugendumweltplattform), the youth platform of the Austrian Life Ministry. The formed informal group called itself “Au atmen” and since 2014 it is a part of the SCI Österreich in Vienna. SCI Österreich, founded in 1947, is the Austrian branch of the global peace and volunteering network Service Civil International (SCI). The organization mainly organizes work camps and sends Austrians to long-term and short-term volunteering projects all over the world. The group of 6 young people coordinating the River Jump project since 2012 was aged 17 to 28 years and coordinated the River Jump! project in 2013 (Austria) and partly in 2014 (Czech Republic). The team gained lots of expertise in nature protection, cross-border cooperation, European values, training and passing on knowledge to other young and not-experienced people. The Austrian side was the main coordinator of the whole River Jump project in 2015 where the legal representative of the SCI was Thomas Schallhart and Sophie Matysek and the project coordinators Diana Peutl and Bianca Wittmann. One project partner is the Czech non-profit organization Hnutí Brontosaurus, which has almost forty years of tradition, visible successes, clear objectives and more than 1,000 members who are supporting the organization.Furthermore, main activities in all stages of the project were supported by a young group of active members, volunteers and other young people gathered around Hnutí Brontosaurus where the national coordinator was Šárka Brázdová. The second project partner was the Slovak UV organization. The primary aim of the UV organization is to find and nurture young talented artists, to promote and support cultural genres of minorities, to promote and co-organize cultural and environmentally friendly projects while giving space to young activists to present and carry out their cultural and environmental activities. Also the different geographic activity areas of UV team members living in different parts of Slovakia ensure that a diverse and heterogenic group of possible participants from all over Slovakia will be reached. In 2015 the idea of the River Jump project had further developed and instead of organizing one big youth event, as the international team did in 2013 and 2014, they organized 13 different activities in all three countries. At 10 actions 172 young people (including the coordinators) participated and got the opportunity to take action. The activities ranged from clean-ups and canoe tours to educational weekends with current topics like saving food resources. There were invited experienced experts, who shared their broad knowledge on their specific fields. Further there were 3 film screenings with altogether 49 participants organized in the next bigger cities around the triangle of the border region: in Brno (CZ), Vienna (AT) and Bratislava (SK). A1 – Eco-Workshop-Training (SK): 17. – 19.04.2015 A2 – Jump4Rivers (AT): 20. – 22.03.2015 A3 – Food4Starters (AT): 20. – 22.03.2015 A4 – Clean&Ride (CZ): 17. – 19.04.2015 A5 – Jump2Past (SK): 20.06.2015 A6 – Film screening AT: 21.11.2015 A7 – National park-Workshop (SK): 04. – 05.07.2015 A8 – Canoeing unlimited (AT): 25. – 26.07.2015 A9 – Canoe week-end (CZ): 14. – 16.08.2015 A10 – Film screening CZ: 30.10.2015 A11 – Urban gardening excursion (SK): 11.09.2015 A12 – Green cosmetics (SK): 24.11.2015 A13 – Film screening SK: 26.11.2015 In the last 3 years the young strategic partnership between the organizations SCI, Hnutí Brontosaurus and UV, o.z. enabled about 410 young people (16-35 years) to participate in River Jump events. This cooperation seems to all project partners to be innovative and facilitates the exchange of good practices between the countries. River Jump! was an example that an active informal group of young people is able to reach their aims on a broader level as they are not limited by borders.