Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Giant and DwarfIn 2011, cooperation between the KNZM and AMCF managed to bring Lukáš Zorád toArusha, another one of our experts working in Kenya. For a change, he led training for teachersconcerning progressive school gardens, which Tomáš had helped to build in schoolsbelow Mount Kenya. In the spring of 2012 a total of five of Arusha’s schools had completedthe construction of school gardens thanks to cooperation with the AMCF and anotherschool was planning on building a system for capturing rain water from the school’s roof inorder to use it to water the garden during dry periods. The KNZM’s financial aid to Arushain 2012 went to support these products.In addition to all their activities, a portion of the aid provided by the KNZM is usedto award the Neosolium Award 209 to male and female students (yes, there are separatecategories for boys and girls to motivate them both) with the best marks in natural sciencedisciplines. The idea behind this award is to support interest among children about naturalscience disciplines as this is the route to improve the lives of those living in Africa. Evenmore, after the KNZM’s director visited Arusha (she was going to another conference in Nairobianyway, meaning her trip cost the KNZM nothing), the KNZM held a collection drive forschool uniforms, shoes and school supplies to help 60 orphans and poor children selectedby the AMCF go to school.All of this can be accomplished in a major African city for a few thousand Euros. All youneed is the desire and to choose the right people to engage in cooperation. Understandably,more could be done with larger pools of funds, but the point is that a gift of a few thousandEuros even once a year could fit in the budgets of nearly every Slovak city. In theory sucha sum is well within the means of many mayors, deputy majors, members of parliamentand other public officials. Why is it that no Slovak city is twinned with any of the hundredsof African cities and does not share in any specific development activities? There are around40 cities in Africa with a population over 1 million, all of which offer ample opportunity forsomeone to support small yet critical projects.The answer is clearly a combination of indifference and the feeling that nothing canbe done. The problem remains: if the KNZM can have a sister organization in Africa, whydoesn’t the city of Banská Bystrica or Zvolen have their own twinned cities in Africa. Theycould easily adopt Arusha and its twin city Moshi tucked under the majestic Mount Kilimanjaroonly 70 kilometres from Arusha. Why couldn’t Nitra have a partnership with thecity of Morogoro, for example, which is also home to an agricultural university? There aremany topics and common themes that could be used to foster these relationships overtime. If there was a problem in finding such common threads, Czech and Slovak cities couldeasily seek assistance from our embassies and representative offices.Affiliated relationships between our cities and African cities may be the prime inspirationfor relationships at a level much higher than that in smaller structures, e.g. schools.209 Neosolium is the Latin name of Banská Bystrica. It’s rooted in the name “neo-solium” or “New Zvolen”,but in contemporary times the “neo” is interpreted as innovation and “sol” is interpreted as the sun, themost underused natural resource in the tropics.238