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HEALTHY ECO LIFE WORKSHOPS REPORT

Project name: Healthy Eco Life

Project duration: 18 March 2010 – 18 July 2011

Main partner:

Association NET+ / Udruga PET+, Croatia

Project partners:

Coram Life Education, UK

Association For Better World / Društvo za boljši svet, Slovenia

Dr. Andrija Štampar Institute of Public Health, Croatia

Eko Centar pz, Croatia

Collaborative partners:

Youth Centre Ecomission (Lovech, Bulgaria) ,

With the Power of Humanity NGO (Pecz, Hungary),

Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Croatia

Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Croatia

City of Zagreb- City Department for Health and Veterans,Croatia

World Health Organization – regional centre Croatia

Web address: www.healthy-eco-life.com

The production of this publication was made possible through funding under the EC Health Program

2008-2013

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views

of the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers or any other European Union body.

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Healthy Eco Life Workshops Report

1. Healthy Eco Life Project

Healthy Eco Life is a project financed through the

European Commission Health Programme 2009. The

project started in March 2010 and lasted for 16 months.

The project was implemented by the consortium of 5

partners: Association NET +, For Better World, Coram Life

Education, Institute for Public Health and Eco Centre pz.

Photo: Eat-well plate workshop exercise (Zagreb)

The basic idea of Healthy Eco Life was promotion of the healthy life styles among school children in

urban areas of Zagreb (Croatia) and Maribor (Slovenia) by connecting the promotion of health with

raising awareness on ecology and environment. This was achieved through development and

implementation of education programme which combines workshops in class with practical

experiences in nature, on ecological farms. The main premise of the project was to put urban child

into rural context, to experience the natural environment and to observe and participate in the

growth and production of healthy food.

Photo: Preparing vegetable soup on eco-farm (Maribor)

The project aimed also to identify EU best practices for

health promotion among school children suitable for

implementation in Croatia. This project was about

networking between potential project providers in

whole Europe and it will seek the ways for enhancing

cooperation and activities in the field of health

promotion.

The projects main target group was school children. This initiative was mainly about motivating

children to make healthy choices in their lives and adopt healthy habits. We wanted to contribute to

the creation of a healthy and productive population as well as prepare the basis for healthy ageing.

The project developed positive attitudes toward health and stress connections between natural

environment and healthy life styles. As a horizontal issue, we followed WHO's positive concept of

health defined as "a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely

absence of disease and infirmity."

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2. Development of original innovative educational programme Healthy Eco Life

Poster with main Programme messages that was present in each classroom during workshop

implementation. Includes words of kinaestetic song Healthy Eco Life.

Development of Healthy Eco Life programme covered the existing gaps of formal health

promotion programmes in schools and developed skills and abilities of people working in

communities to address health issues in a more efficient and children friendly way.

Study visit to UK was undertaken to learn from Coram Life Education best practice methodology

(positive teaching techniques) and other English examples of successful health promotion of

children and youth. After consulting other stakeholders (workshop and first meetings) and after

reading first draft of Best Practice Compendium, project team started to develop Healthy Eco Life

education programme. Baseline research was done in Zagreb (Croatia) and Maribor (Slovenia) to

show state of urban children habits, knowledge and attitudes regarding healthy lifestyle.

New Healthy Eco Life programme included urban and rural environments (school class and eco

agricultural farm), group work and learning by doing methodology. Healthy Eco Life programme

is based on best practice methodologies complemented with ecological awareness aspect and

adapted to needs of target areas. It contains education modules for work in classrooms, practical

learning on growing and producing healthy food

modules, physical activities and mental health

modules.

Photo: preparing vegetable soup on eco farm

(Slovenia)

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Workshop themes:

Education about healthy eating Promoting physical activity Nurturing mental health Raising ecological awareness

Photo: organic gardening workshop (Croatia)

3. Pilot implementation of Healthy Eco Life Programme

Pilot implementation in Croatia started in September 2010 and lasted until June 2011.

In Slovenia, programme was implemented from September 2010 until November 2010.

HEEL program included 4 workshops (4x 2 school hours) for each group conducted in school classes

by 2 educators working in pair, and a whole day educational visits on ecological agricultural farms.

Usually, workshops in schools were implemented once a week, exceptionally twice a week. Most of

the children remained in intensive part of HEEL programme during 4 weeks, while attending to

compost/gardening workshops in schools (February till June 2011) and in May 2011, while

participating in one day educational visit to eco-farms

(Croatia).

Photo: children tasting chicken soup they made on

the workshop (Croatia)

Additionally to HEEL workshops implementation,

schools were invited to start their own experimental school gardens and to prepare compost files, so

practical workshops in gardening and compost preparations were implemented.

Workshops covered 4 main HEEL themes: healthy eating, physical activity, preservation of

environment and emotional health. In workshops educators use principles of interactive

communication, learning by doing, team work, democratic learning and positive teaching techniques

(CLE).

In Slovenia 16 workshops in classes (32 school hours), and 2 one day-visits to eco farm have been

conducted. Workshops have been conducted in 4 classes, including 89 pupils in 2 primary schools:

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OŠ Martin Konšak

OŠ Prežihov Voranc .

Photo: children preparing vegetables for chicken soup

(Croatia)

In Zagreb, Healthy Eco Life programme included 618 pupils in 10 primary schools:

OŠ Vjenceslav Novak – 3 classes (68 children)

OŠ Kozari bok- 4 classes (78 children)

OŠ Antun Gustav Matoš – 4 classes (76 children)

OŠ Grigor Vitez – 1 class (28 children)

OŠ Jordanovac – 3 classes (54 children)

OŠ Davorin Trstenjak- 3 classes (69 children)

OŠ Pantovčak- 2 classes (49 children)

OŠ Mlinarska- 2 classes (39 children)

OŠ August Šenoa- 4 classes (94 children)

OŠ Matko Laginja- 3 classes (63 children) Photo: physical exercise in nature (Croatia)

Zagreb educators have conducted 112 workshops (224 school

hours) in classrooms and 12 educational one day visits to

eco-farm.

Zagreb and Maribor team during Healthy Eco Life project

implementation conducted 128 classroom-workshops, and

16 educational one day visits to eco-farms. 89 pupils from

Maribor and 618 pupils from Zagreb participated in the

project. Totally, Healthy Eco Life project included 707

children from 33 classes, aged 9 till 11 years.

Photo: urban children socializing with domestic animals during visit on eco farm (Croatia)

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Because of specifically conditions regarding participation of Zagreb primary schools in „School in

nature“ national program- the implementation of HEEL program in Croatia started with one month

delay. That was the reason for transferring eco-farm visit to spring time (May 2011). Season of rain

and cold weather in Croatia starts usually around mid October – that is why project team concluded

that it was safer to plan eco-farm visit when the possibility for dry weather would be better (spring

2011), because most of educational workshops on farms included

outdoor activities.

Photo: a girl making organic bread on healthy eating module

during workshop on eco farm (Croatia)

3. Educators implemented Healthy Eco Life workshops in schools and eco agricultural farms

Education of 15 educators of the project Healthy Eco Life had been held in Zagreb and in Sloboština

near Požega from 30th August till 2nd September 2010. Project educators were from Zagreb, Požega

(Croatia) and Maribor (Slovenia). Education was held by the Association NET+, Eco Center pz

(Sloboština) and partners from England – organization Coram Life Education. Educators were

introduced in detail with the “Positive Teaching Techniques" by the representatives of Coram Life

Education and with the content of workshops that was to be implemented in elementary schools in

Zagreb and Maribor.

Educators were preselected and prepared for education seminar by obligatory reading of appropriate

literature from health promotion and environment protection field. Slovenian educators were

professionals in the health promotion field, while Croatian

educators were graduated students of medicine, biology,

pedagogical science, psychology, geography and social work. On

Eco farm educators were young students of agriculture and

geography.

One additional education module was organized in Eco centre pz

in March 2011 for new educators not included in the first

education. Eco centre manager repeated part of the education

for workshops on eco farms for new educators ( March 2011). In

Slovenia, Ms Bernard and Mr Savnik who participated in training

for trainers transferred the knowledge to Mr. Škobalj and other

two educators, in charge for eco-farm workshops

implementation.

Photo: children practicing organic gardening on eco-farm workshop (Croatia)

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Educators were supervised regularly on supervision meetings through whole programme

implementation (20 supervision meetings). To help young educators to improve their teaching skills,

workshops were video-taped and analyzed on group educators meetings. Feed-back was given to

each educator supporting her/his talents and skills, and suggesting how to improve less advanced

elements of teaching.

8 educators were subcontracted in Zagreb part of programme implementation (Association NET+), 8

in Eko centre pz, 2 persons from Slovenian project staff worked as educators and 2 educators were

subcontracted in Maribor (For Better World).

Photo: children learning about

different herbs during eco farm

workshop (Slovenia)

4. Workshops influence on children

In the survey sample, about 180 4th

grade elementary school students

attended the workshops in Croatia, and

about 80 children of the same age took

part in Slovenia. The workshops were

designed to teach children about a healthy diet, the need for physical activity, preservation of nature

and the importance of emotional health. The workshops were focused on practical activities such as

preparing healthy drinks from fruit and vegetables, making a soup, preparing healthy sweets,

planting beans etc.

Two surveys were conducted in order to make an assessment of

how the workshops had influenced children’s attitudes towards

food, physical activity and the environment in general. The first

survey was conducted at the beginning of the program in order

to get insight into the children’s attitudes (opinions) before

attending the workshops. The second survey was conducted

after the last workshop and it was aimed to observe the

children’s attitudes (opinions) after the program was completed

and detect any possible changes that were the result of Healthy

Eco life workshops implementation.

Photo: creating experimental school garden (Croatia)

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TABLES WITH WORKSHOP IMPACT (Healthy Eco Life project)

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Photo: baking children made bread in tradional

stone baker- eco farm visit (Croatia)

5. Conclusion

During 4 workshops children prepare fruit and

vegetables healthy cocktails, cook a chicken

soup, prepare natural healthy sweets and taste different kinds of animal and vegetable milk. In this

way children broaden their experience with healthy food, improve their skills in cooking, and develop

positive approach to cooking. They learn to appreciate homemade meals (versus fast food), to think

about how food was grown (benefits of organically locally produced food) and to balance different

sorts of food (more fruit, vegetable and integral carbohydrates, less meat, oil and sweets). Also,

children experience themselves as active independent individuals who are able to prepare meals and

they feel stronger to oppose possible negative influence of media, peer-group pressure and even to

compensate parental role (possible unhealthy family eating habits).

Photo: children tasting healthy deserts

from apples and honey they made on HEEL

workshop (Croatia)

Through discussions, games and quizzes

children adopt caring approach to

environment, learning more about negative

effects of modern civilization to planet Earth

and on human health. Every workshop deals

with ecological issues: exercises like Tree of life,

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Sorting waste, Game of transport, Eco quiz, Plastic bag and gardening

workshop on ecological farm helped children to understand the

importance of protecting the environment, and to show them how

children could contribute to environment protection. In reconnecting

urban children to nature project Healthy Eco Life endorsed new

perspective of living on planet Earth in children’s lives. Plants and

animals are also part of our community and – by endangering nature

survival – people endanger their own.

The results were promising. Statistically significant increase of

knowledge of target groups on healthy life habits (measured through

questionnaires) was achieved and registered in evaluation process.

We could conclude that Healthy Eco Life workshop implementation was very successful and enriching

experience for all target groups included: children, teachers and parents, as well as for educators and

Healthy Eco Life project team.

Photos: children eating healthy soup (up left) – Slovenia; children preparing vegetables (up right)-

Croatia.