Global Action Days 2025

      On the ship Earth, there are no passengers — we are all the crew.

 FORUM THEATRE

The narrator introduces the audience to the characters, the time, and the place of the story.

IVANA – Narrator: A typical day in Skopje. The city is drowning in fog and poisonous smog. Students from the Primary School “Dimitar Miladinov” are finishing their classes and heading home. Leon and Kate live in Skopska Crna Gora, Despina, Makedonka, and Aleksandra in Nerezi on Mount Vodno, Nikola and Mila in the city center, Dorotea, Nenad, and Maja in Karpoš, Iva, Tea, and Veronika in Aerodrom, and Kristijan in Kisela Voda.

On nicer days, they meet after school, play sports, have fun, and work on joint projects. But now, everyone is rushing home to spend as little time outside as possible, to breathe as little as possible of the polluted air that makes even the strongest sick.

At 2 PM, Leon and Kate were already home, greeted by their favorite lunch — vegetables prepared on a solar grill, a grill that cooks without smoke or fire and can even work during the night despite being solar-powered. During lunch, they told their parents how dark and unpleasant the city was, and how much they wished their school could be relocated to Skopska Crna Gora.

Grandpa Nenad: I did a good thing by stopping you from moving to the city. Village life combined with urban technology is the perfect combination. Come on, enjoy the delicious lunch that the sun has cooked for us.

Grandma Elena: Ah, if someone had told me back then that clean air would become a privilege, I wouldn’t have believed them. I’m so happy to be living in this beauty.

Ivana – Narrator: Despina, Makedonka, and Aleksandra, climbing the slopes of Vodno, were chatting about everyday things.

Despina: I wish I didn’t have to walk that road that slowly but surely makes me sick.

Makedonka: That would only be possible if our school were in this village.

Aleksandra: Now we have to take a bath to wash off the toxins and unpleasant smells. Just imagine how much we’d have to pay for electricity if we hadn’t installed the solar collectors. Now we have enough hot water, and our homes are warm enough too.

Ivana – Narrator: The other students got home more quickly, turned on the heaters to warm up, the boilers to freshen up, to wash the toxins and soot off their bodies, and started the machines to rinse their clothes — and then, surprise — the power went out. Even though it was only 2 PM, it felt like midnight, pitch dark.

Bojan, who is usually afraid of the dark, found his phone and started calling his friends to check if there was a power outage in their neighborhoods too.

Bojan: Hi Dorotea! We don’t have power here in Centar, so I was wondering how it is at your place?

Dorotea: Oh, it’s not just the power — I’ve lost everything: light, heat, food. Lunch didn’t even get cooked. I’ve got a warm blanket and hope that the electricity will come back soon.

Bojan: Hmm, if you’re out of power too, then it must be a major outage. It could take a while. Enjoy the romantic mood — I’ll call Veronika, she always knows what’s going on. Her dad works at EVN.

Bojan: Hi Veronika!

Veronika: Are you checking when the power will come back too? I don’t know. My dad isn’t home from work yet — oh wait, here he comes… He says the power will be back at 8 PM.

Bojan: Oh nooo, what are we going to do about our homework?

Veronika: Nothing. The teachers know there’s no electricity. The outage happened because of the thick fog. I told you all we should support Iva’s project — the big fan that would blow the smog away, and we’d all be fine.

Bojan: Yeah, you’re right. We need to help her make that project happen.

Ivana – Narrator: The next day, the students scattered in all directions, searching for sponsors and funding to build the giant fan. The energy needed to power the fan would be paid for by all the residents of Skopje. It wasn’t hard to get approval — everyone was fed up with the endless fog...

After a few months, the giant fan began clearing the Skopje valley of smog and pushed it into the Dojran valley.

The fan became an effective smog-shifter, moving it from one valley to another. This disrupted inter-valley relations, and smog, as smog does, doesn’t recognize borders — it spread into neighboring valleys too, and soon became a global problem. Everyone was blaming everyone else. Huge amounts of energy were being spent trying to solve the problem, but somehow, nothing was working.

The audience reacts and changes the course of events.

Petar: STOP! I have an idea! Starting tomorrow — everyone on bicycles! And for those who can't ride, there's public transport.

Makedonka: Let’s try to reduce air pollution — starting tomorrow, cars stay in the garage!

Elena: And no more burning wood, trash, or plastic.

Bojan: Let’s keep doors and windows closed when we’re heating our homes.

Veronika: Let’s lower the blinds and draw the curtains to reduce heat loss during the night.

Nenad: Yes, yes! And let’s open them during the day to take advantage of the sun’s warmth.

Despina: Let’s only heat the rooms we’re actually using, not the whole apartment.

Aleksandra: Pollution doesn’t just come from heating — it’s also lighting, ironing, washing… If you save energy, you pollute less.

Kristijan: Exactly! By using electrical appliances wisely, we save energy and protect the environment.

Ivana – Narrator:
The large valley fans worked less and less each year, and soon they stopped completely, remaining only as monuments — reminders of an unpleasant time we never wish to see return.

More examples of our activities: