August 2-15, 2010 was the time of International Work Camp in Mlyniv secondary school №3. The Camp was devoted to complex window heat insulation. 60 windows were insulated. The work was done by 12 volunteers, 9 of them came from France, Germany, South Korea, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Italy.
International Work Camp is an unusual event for Ukraine, but it is quite common in the world. People from different countries come to these camps by their own cost to work, to see a new country, to make new friends and to do a favor for those who need their help.
The Camp is a part of the international project “Local Energy Sustainability for Schools and Our Neighbourhood – LESSON” which is financed by the Government of Slovenia and coordinated by the NGO “Focus” (Lubliana, Slovenia). The project made it possible to buy all necessary materials for the window insulation. Thanks to collaboration with the Ukrainian Association for Youth Co-operation “Alternative-V” it was possible to widely spread information on the Camp in over 40 countries and supply meals for the participants. As a result 9 foreign volunteers take part in the work”, – Olga Lyaschuk, a Coordinator of the project in Ukraine, said.
“Mlyniv school won the right to host an international work camp because the school was able to demonstrate readiness to effectively organize the camp. And we did not mistake with the choice! All dependent on school was carried out in very good way. “Thanks a lot to all its employees and in particular the Director Yakovets Sergiy” – continues to Olga.
The main task of the Work camp was window insulation with the help of modern effective and cheap methods. But reducing heat losses through the windows is not the only aim of the project. The insulated windows will keep the classrooms warmer but the amount of necessary gas supply will be less. Spreading simple energy effective methods in our country will diminish the burden on the environment from producing and using energy.
Most people consider energy saving to be very expensive. Warming ordinary wooden windows denies this statement. The named window insulation is a cheap and effective method to lessen gas consumption for heating. It affords to save average 15% costs for heating, since the indoor temperature goes 4 degrees up and the draughts disappear. Moreover, no forced ventilation is needed as with hermetic double-glazing units.
“Unfortunately, today Ukraine has no stimuli for introducing energy saving in state funded institutions. But even having no assistance from the state, schools are able to create comfortable conditions for study and save heating costs. They need just to invite 5-6 persons to provide insulation and buy cheap necessary materials (insulating tape, silicone, glazing beads). Ecoclub can provide them with necessary instruments and teach the steps of the work. You should just address us” – Andriy Martynyuk, Chair of the Board of Ecoclub, said.
“It looks very odd that a foreign country government, being concerned about energy saving, supports the related activity in Ukraine while the position of our authorities, so to say, is difficult to understand. Increasing energy efficiency of the buildings is really the gold-mine for Ukraine. What will happen after window insulation? In the first place, it will upgrade working conditions of the personnel. In the second place, it will considerably cut down consumption of the precious Russian gas, and consequently decrease the greenhouse gases emission which is the major reason of climate change. In the third place, it will provide new work places. That is why local authorities should do their best to stimulate and support every activity in this field. The situation should not be like it is now when the school has got only warmer classrooms and moral benefits for their work. Alas, there are no other stimuli in our legislation. That is to say, no mechanisms to return the saved costs exist in Ukraine. All the savings will go to the general budget. To make the energy efficiency activity popular the state funded institutions should get at least a half of the saved costs”, – Olga Lyaschuk claimed.
See the work stages and photos of other engaged works at http://picasaweb.google.com/ecoclub.rivne/
Contact:
Andriy Martynyuk,
NGO Ecoclub
Chair of the Board
ecoclub@ukrwest.net
Tel/fax +380362237024
skype: andriy_martinuk
www.ecoclub.ukrwest.net