Young Reporters participating in the Litter Less Campaign in Slovakia studied the impact of an official campaign of the Ministry of Environment, Vyčistime si Slovensko (Let´s Clean Slovakia), which aimed at the elimination of illegal dumping sites. The task was assigned at the introductory Litter Less seminar on 4 November, and the deadline was 15 December. So far, Young Reporters from 7 schools delivered reportages about successes or failures of the campaign.
In the process of investigation, YRs met with people in charge from municipalities, evaluated the results of the project and surveyed the citizens on their satisfaction. Students conducted research on the reasons for the creation of the dumping site, and what can be done so that it is not re-created in the future.
Thanks to the provided methodology, Young Reporters managed to deliver good articles illustrated by pictures "before" (with litter) and "after" (illegal dumping site cleaned). They gained useful skills on journalistic writing (for the reporters from new schools it was the first experience of this kind), and got acquainted with local waste problems. In this way, they are ready to start working on and improving their entries for the YRE competition.