Interactive Advent calendar

The Malta Environment and Planning Authority, Middlesea Group, the Education Division, Nature Trust (Malta), and the EkoSkola Co-ordinating Committee, have prepared an interactive Advent Calendar for primary schoolchildren in Years 1 to 6, to be distributed among schools.

MEPA chairman Andrew Calleja said that the calendar features various environmental messages aimed at increasing the child's sense of responsibility towards the environment.

"This calendar is aimed at fostering creativity, instigating curiosity and empowering children to work for a better environment", Mr Calleja said.

While congratulating MEPA for this initiative, David G. Curmi, general manager of Middlesea Valletta Life, the specialist life assurance company in the Middlesea Group, and Joseph M. Rizzo, general manager, Middlesea Insurance plc, commented that "as an organisation with a strong commitment towards the environment, we are proud to be associated with such a project".

The calendar is being distributed in primary classes of all schools in Malta and Gozo. Teachers can use the calendar from both an instructive and a creative point of view. This is because the calendar itself also contains instructions for the making of decorations which are environment-friendly and easy for children to make for Christmas. These decorations will be hung on a Christmas tree in Floriana.

The children are also being asked to draw their New Year's Green Resolution. The best drawings, one from each school will be exhibited at the MEPA foyer in January. The best entries will also be exhibited during the EkoSkola opening seminar where the winners will be presented a prize.