The Danube Box: Water education kit for teachers

The Danube Box is one of the most successful activities among the public participation efforts of the ICPDR. This teaching kit for teachers is designed to help educate children between the ages of 8 and 13. Via 10,000 Danube Boxes produced and distributed so far, more than a million school children could be reached. The box was distributed in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. A Serbian version is due to be launched in autumn 2012.

The idea of the Danube Box is to see a river and its basin as a unit and to consider all its important aspects, such as ecology, culture, history and economy. Even though the Danube is the tie of 19 countries and more than 83 million people, each country tends to watch only its national stretch of the river. With the Danube Box the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) wants to move the integrating features of the Danube into the spotlight.

Awareness and appreciation

The idea of the Danube Box was developed within the framework of the "Green Danube Partnership", which exists between The Coca-Cola Company, Coca-Cola Hellenic and the ICPDR since 2005. Its purpose was from the beginning to raise awareness for the ecological treasures of the Danube River Basin, its economic values and its environmental problems.

Transboundary teaching materials for the Danube aiming at a holistic approach and integrating all important aspects of the international river did not exist until the launch of the Danube Box in 2006.

The Danube Box motivates to get active for the protection of the Danube and the sustainable use of its valuable resources, to preserve the diversity of the Danube River Basin and to protect the Danube for future generations. Recent spin-offs such as the Saar Box in Germany or Orange River Box in Southern Germany are supported by the ICPDR.

You can order the Danube Box from the official website of the project: www.danubebox.org