ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Helene Thau Jackson, Denmark

Raindrops were landing on my head as we stood surrounded by a sea of achievements, wrapped in blue plastic bags. We had been through sweat, blood, and tears, walking the paths of mud and garbage and now, finally, we could see the result of our hard work. In front of us stood around 50 plastic bags filled with all the trash you could imagine; clothes, cups, condoms, car parts, bottles, bags, bones, diapers, gadgets, shoes, tin, toys, toothpaste and I could go on.

We were around 30 volunteers who had faced the rain and decided to clean up Riscani, the north part of Chisinau. Not only us, but all over the city, few brave people had defied the bad weather to clean up the capital. “Cleaning up Chisinau” was initiated by ADVIT in cooperation with Art Labyrinth, AVI and Youth Generation and was set up not only to clean the parks in Chisinau, but also to create awareness of environmental issues in Moldova.

On April 24^th 2010 at 12.00 we invited people to clean up their city. With meeting points in the three parts; Buiucani, Riscani and Telecentru around 50 people gathered to clean. With help from EcoExpert, a Moldovan NGO working with environmentalism, we were able to distribute plastic bags and gloves to the brave participants. Even though the weather was against us, after three hours of hard work, we could see the fruit of our effort; a sea of filled plastic bags and a city that was a bit cleaner.

As the afternoon went by, Mother Nature decided to give us a stroke of sunshine and a break from the rain. At 16.00, as we all went to Valea Trandafirilor in Botanica to clean up the park together, the sun said its greetings. Even though we were all tired, the mood was high and so was the will to clean.

The day ended of with a concert at the cultural organization Art Labyrinth. With the slogan “Cleaning Day – Clean up your mind” the concert offered Moldovan as well as Russian artists with music, poetry, theatre and fireworks. So, as the sun went down on the gleaming city, our tired bodies and minds enjoyed the sweet tones of reggae music.