ZAGREB, 13 June 2022 - Over 60 children from Ukraine and from Zagreb and the quake-hit areas of Banovina took part in an environmental drive called "Cleaning Without Borders" to remove underwater waste in Savudrija Bay on Saturday and Sunday.

The children joined forces with divers from Croatia and Slovenia in this campaign.

The main objective of the drive is to clear the sea bed of waste as well as to draw attention to the global problem of sea pollution and raise public awareness of the importance of preserving the flora and fauna of the Adriatic Sea.

It is very important that children get into the habit of helping to preserve the sea environment, Economy and Sustainable Development Ministry State Secretary Mario Šiljeg said.

The campaign lasted several days, and the children were accommodated in the Veli Jože camp where educational workshops were also organized.

For more, check out our lifestyle section.

February the 11th, 2022 - Croatian schoolchildren are being offered ways in which to develop and then showcase their entrepreneurial talents, and it's been paying off. Croatian schoolchildren, more specifically those from down in Dubrovnik-Neretva County and Split-Dalmatia County, have a lot to boast about.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, ten teams of young people from primary and secondary schools who want to initiate positive changes in their local communities participated in the first UPSHIFT workshop this weekend in Split-Dalmatia and Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

The three teams of Croatian schoolchildren won cash prizes in the amount of 7,500 kuna and mentoring support during the project implementation by the decision of the expert jury. A total of 35 students participated in teams of three to five students. The winners of the UPSHIFT workshop in the Split-Dalmatia and Dubrovnik-Neretva counties are:

Team 4: Josipa O., Lucija R. and Josipa B. from the Commercial and Trade School in Split, which will focus on educating young people about sex education.

Team 6: Petra S., Karmela K., Vanja S. and Sasha S. from the Vladimir Nazor Elementary School in Ploce, whose project will conduct workshops for the production of didactic subjects intended for children in need.

Team 8: Lovre K., Lana M. and Danijela K. from the Radic Brothers Elementary School in Bracevic, who will try to solve the challenge of the lack of a library in the regional school with the project.

So far, 19 counties have participated

To date, more than 300 Croatian schoolchildren have participated in the UPSHIFT programme across 19 Croatian counties, who have gathered in teams to develop 70 solutions, of which 34 received financial and mentoring support for further implementation. By participating in the programme, young people aged 13 to 19 created solutions to challenges in the fields of ecology and environmental protection, education, inclusion and the fight against discrimination, the quality of life of young people, and many other topics important to young people.

UPSHIFT is a three-day workshop that combines entrepreneurial and team spirit, innovation and practical knowledge, and mentoring support to address the challenges that young people face in their local communities. In order to participate in the workshop, young people gather in teams of three to five members and describe in the application the problems they want to solve. The programme is jointly implemented by the UNICEF Office for Croatia and HUKI within the UNICEF Youth Program me"ZABUM - for the future of youth".

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ZAGREB, 16 Dec 2021 - Culture and Media Minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek on Wednesday presented a national program aimed at encouraging parents to read to their children from an early age on.

The program, called "Born to read", is implemented by the Culture and Media Ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and with the support of the Croatian Pediatric Society and the Croatian Society of Preventive and Social Pediatrics.

Speaking at a training course for pediatricians in Slavonski Brod, Obuljen Koržinek said she expected the program to encourage parents to read to their children.

The program is part of the national strategy for the promotion of reading, adopted in 2017, and it was presented at the end of the Year of Reading.

The minister said that the implementation of the program would start in 2022 and that it involved pediatricians who would work on raising parents' awareness of the need to start reading to their children as early as six months of age as a way of strengthening the child's competencies.

Research shows that reading to children helps develop their intelligence, cognitive abilities, and generally their literacy. In Croatia, only one-third of parents are aware of the importance of reading to children and the percentage of parents who actually read to their children is even lower, the minister said, expressing hope the project would help raise awareness among parents about the benefits of reading to children.

The minister noted that a program of this kind had been underway in Italy for some 20 years and that it had yielded the desired positive changes.

Throughout next year education courses will be held for pediatricians about the importance of encouraging reading to children.

The idea to launch the program came from Dr. Marija Radonić.

For more, check out our dedicated politics section.

ZAGREB, 28 Oct 2021 - President Zoran Milanović said on Thursday people not vaccinated against COVID were getting sick, urging people to get vaccinated to avoid another lockdown and saying that children should get vaccinated too and go to school as distance education no longer made sense.

Speaking to the press in Delnice, the president said he sympathized and understood, but added that the situation was much more different than a year ago.

As for Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's statement that he would not interfere in the retirement of Honorary and Protection Battalion commander Elvis Burčul, Milanović called it childish and said the problem could not be solved by the Minister of Defence but the Prime Minister.

"The conditions for retirement are clear and as long as I am the president and the (Armed Forces) commander in chief, no one will be harassed by petty politicians," he said, referring to Defence Minister Mario Banožić, who sent Colonel Burčul into early retirement.

As for illegal drugs in the military, including dealing, Milanović said he would consider irresponsible all commanders who did not pay the most serious attention to the problem.

For more, check out our politics section.

September 23, 2021 - The coronavirus has broken out in Zagreb schools, and more and more Croatian children are being vaccinated at the Fair, but when will the general recommendation be for those over 12 years old?

Tportal.hr reports today that the number of people suffering from covid is growing, especially among young people. ''In the first three days of this week we have almost 100 new patients in primary and 88 in secondary schools in Zagreb'', said Tatjana Petričević Vidović from the School Medicine Department of the Institute of Public Health 'Andrija Štampar', and commented for HRT on the vaccination of Croatian children.

''Yesterday there were 427 newly infected people in Zagreb. The numbers are rising, we are on the ascending arm of the fourth wave. Epidemiologists say that we are not close to the peak, this can be seen from the daily figures on the increased number of tests, and the data can also be seen in schools in Zagreb. We have an increase in infected children, with a return to school and indoor spaces there is an increase. In the first week we had 80 new cases in primary schools, 99 in secondary schools, and in the second week 229 in primary and 203 in secondary schools. In the first three days of this week, we have almost 100 in primary and 88 in secondary. It is obvious that the number is growing and what we notice is that the virus is spreading much faster within the class so we have classes that have symptoms in a day or two and tests confirm the coronavirus in 15 out of 30 students. The delta strain is spreading much faster and we are witnessing that'', said Dr. Tatjana Petričević Vidović from the Department of School Medicine of the Teaching Institute for Public Health 'Andrija Štampar' in the HRT show on Studio 4.

She called on people who have not been vaccinated to do so, ''it is absolutely a way out of this situation'', she pointed out.

''Regarding the vaccination of Croatian children, we vaccinate children over 12 years of age, in accordance with the recommendations of regulatory agencies and our CNIPH. Children are vaccinated with the vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna. So far, expert recommendations exist for the population of children suffering from chronic diseases or other conditions, for whom covid infection could significantly endanger their health. Of course, healthy children can also be vaccinated and we see that, and parents bring their children to the Fair. That is what we wanted to see, that parents and children are vaccinated together, but also grandparents who have not been vaccinated'', said Petričević Vidović.

When it comes to vaccinating Croatian children over the age of 12, she said there is no mass recommendation to vaccinate healthy children. Vaccination can be carried out individually.

'We have not yet embarked on mass vaccination because the benefits and possible side effects that have been reported are still being weighed, I must say. That is valid, the research is ongoing and I hope that some decision will be made in the foreseeable future'', said Petričević Vidović for HRT.

Commenting on the increase in the number of new patients in schools, she said that she is constantly called upon to maintain distance, but that is difficult. ''These measures must be implemented in the school. Self-isolation is still necessary when we have a newly ill child in the classroom. We try to be as sparing as possible and as few children as possible go into self-isolation. But when the infection spreads in the class and when we have two or more sick children, then self-isolation must be determined for the whole class'', explained Petričević Vidović.

For example, four classes in a school had to go into self-isolation because of one infected student, and she said that children must all be tested before going to school to eliminate the infection before the trip.

''But in school children are in contact with each other, so everyone has to self-isolate. It is not a popular method, but it is still needed given the state of the epidemic and given the fact that we do not have a high enough vaccination rate of the general population'', she said.

She also commented on postcovid in children who had no symptoms during the illness.

''The disease in children passes in most cases with a mild clinical course. Fortunately, complications of multiinflammatory syndrome are rare. Long postcovids with symptoms of weakness, long fatigue are monitored, concentration disorders are mentioned, but it takes more time and research and we hope that there will be no more pronounced consequences in children and young people'', Petričević Vidović told HRT.

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