International Bird Day

International Bird Day officially takes place on April 1. It is an annual event timed to the return of birds from places of wintering.

The holiday dedicated to birds was celebrated for the first time in the American town of Oil City in 1894. A teacher of biology organized the event at school. The idea was supported by local newspapers that started to promote holiday. Soon Bird Day was widely celebrated in the USA and Europe.

The International Convention on the Protection of Birds Beneficial in Agriculture was adopted in Paris In 1902. It was signed by more than 10 countries. And in 1950, the International Convention for the Protection of Birds was signed in Paris, replacing the previous document for most of the participating governments.

One of the main objectives of the “International Day of birds” is to draw attention to the dangers threatening the birds around the world to help protect them and their habitat.

The nightjar is the bird of the year 2021 in Belarus. There are about 60 to 70 species of birds in the world. True nightjars occur almost worldwide in temperate to tropical regions. They have protective colouring of gray, brown, or reddish brown. They feed on flying insects that they catch on the wing at night. It is characterized by its flat head, wide mouth fringed with bristles, large eyes, and soft plumage that results in noiseless flight, and it is about 30 cm (12 inches) long. It breeds throughout Europe and in western Asia, wintering in Africa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVnK6bBbvWw We are BirdLife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bINnZWBivX0 Nightjar - Mystic Bird of the Night

Prepared by Amelia T., 8 form student

Borisov is a child-friendly city

A child-friendly city (CFC) is a city, town, community or any system of local governance committed to improving the lives of children within their jurisdiction by realizing their rights as articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In practice, it is a city, town or community in which the voices, needs, priorities and rights of children are an integral part of public policies, programmes and decisions.

Broadly speaking, it is a city, town or community where children:

• Are protected from exploitation, violence and abuse.

• Have a good start in life and grow up healthy and cared for.

• Have access to quality social services.

• Experience quality, inclusive and participatory education and skills development.

• Express their opinions and influence decisions that affect them.

• Participate in family, cultural, city/community and social life.

• Live in a safe secure and clean environment with access to green spaces.

• Meet friends and have places to play and enjoy themselves.

• Have a fair chance in life regardless of their ethnic origin, religion, income, gender or ability.

While the primary responsibility for ensuring that children’s rights are realised lies with governments, other stakeholders such as civil society organizations, the private sector, academia and the media, as well as children themselves, also have an important role to play in building child-friendly cities.

On April 12, 2021 Borisov was awarded the honorary title of a city friendly to children. Our students met T. Radochai, the representative of UNICEF in Belarus and learnt about the organization and about the work of youth centre in Borisov.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNllyz14J10 Child friendly city initiative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THleu-pYtrs

Prepared by Ivan A., 8 form student

International Day of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps

International Day of liberation of the Nazi concentration camps is a memorable date, celebrated annually on 11 April.

During the Second World War in Nazi Germany, its allies and countries in the occupied territories they acted (in addition to prisons, ghettos, and so on). Of 14 000 concentration camps. Prisoners of Nazis burned in the ovens of the crematorium (sometimes to death), poisoned in gas chambers, tortured, raped, starved and forced to work at the same time to exhaustion; prisoners have bled for the soldiers of the Wehrmacht, was performed over them the terrible medical experiments, testing new drugs on the people.

In March 1945, on the territory of Buchenwald (the largest concentration camp) flashes armed insurrection organized by international forces prisoners themselves. When Buchenwald concentration camp includes the American troops, the rebels had already presided over a death camp. Largely because of this, the Nazis (SS guards) did not manage to cover up the traces of their horrible crimes and the testimony of prisoners reached the international Nuremberg Tribunal. April 11 — the day of entry of American troops into the territory of Buchenwald — and was adopted by the United Nations as the date when the planet marks the International Day of liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

Total in the territories controlled by the Germans, was contained in concentration camps, death camps, prisons 18 000 000 people. Of these, more than 11 million were killed. Among the dead — 5 million citizens of the USSR, as well as 6 million Jews from different countries. Every fifth prisoner was a child (there are more terrible figures contained more than 20 million people from 30 countries, 12 million did not live up to the release of).

Maly Trostenets ("Little Trostenets") is a village near Minsk in Belarus. During Nazi Germany's occupation of the area during WWII, the village became the location of a Nazi extermination site.

Throughout 1942, Jews from Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland were taken by train to Maly Trostinets to be lined up in front of the pits and were shot. From the summer of 1942, mobile gas vans were also used. The Jews of Minsk were killed and buried in Maly Trostinets between 28 and 31 July 1942 and on 21 October 1943. As the Red Army approached the area in June 1944, the Germans killed most of the prisoners and destroyed the camp.

Researchers from the Soviet Union estimated there had been around 200,000 deaths at the camp and nearby execution sites.

Prepared by Valeria S., 8 form student