On 18 May 2013, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the local NGOs ‘Ruke’ and ‘Mozaik Prijateljstva’, joined the ‘Let’s Do It!’ action to clean illegal disposal sites and make Bosnia and Herzegovina a nicer, cleaner and healthier place.
On 18 May 2013, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Bosnia Herzegovina, together with the local NGOs ‘Ruke’ and ‘Mozaik Prijateljstva’, joined the ‘Let’s Do It!’ action for the global environmental clean-up-campaign ‘Let’s Do It! World Clean-up’. The goal was to clean illegal disposal sites, and make Bosnia and Herzegovina a nicer, cleaner and healthier place. In the course of five hours, more than 40,000 people and several thousand school children volunteers from over 110 municipalities across Bosnia and Herzegovina took part in the cleaning of illegal dumps and green areas. About 60 United Nations staff and their families cleaned the Vilsonovo Setaliste/Museum area in Sarajevo, as well as the park shared with the National Museum, History Museum and Ars Aevi, in cooperation with the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Culture and Sport and the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo. Preliminary figures show that throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina at least 1,400 tons of garbage were collected from 90 municipalities. "This year UNV provided part of the equipment necessary for the action, the conference room of the United Nations house to be used as information centre, as well as one day secretariat for the action," said Hyun Joo Youn, Programme Officer of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “We, UNV in Bosnia and Herzegovina, believe that the essence of voluntary action is to contribute your time and efforts in order to achieve positive social change”. Let’s Do It! is a global civic movement with the mission to connect and empower people and organizations around the world to make this planet cleaner and healthier. As part of this global civic movement, the Let’s Do It! Bosnia and Herzegovina campaign started in 2012, involving organizations, UNV included, and individuals from over 105 municipalities across the country. Let’s Do It! Bosnia and Herzegovina aims to clean up illegal dump sites and to promote volunteerism for a sustainable, clean environment. By increasing public awareness of the importance of a clean and safe environment, well-informed people can take action to protect the environment voluntarily.