TZ: Governor Petra Pecková awarded 65 active students with the Duke of Edinburgh Award

Participation in the programme, which now operates in 130 countries worldwide and is completed by 1.3 million young people a year, including more than 5 000 Czechs, has helped many to overcome difficult lockdown periods and to spend time actively despite their circumstances. Participants organised collections for hospitals and nursing homes, sewed scarves, brought food to the sick, cleaned up garbage or helped with exercise through the EPP app.

Tereza Placatková, a student at the Příbram Gymnasium, volunteered at the local Charita charity organization. When the pandemic made it impossible for her to visit, she collected food from people and delivered it to socially vulnerable families with children. In addition, she helped socially disadvantaged children with setting up a tutoring program and tutoring. "DofE taught me that sitting over textbooks is far from the only way to develop and move on, that if we can, we should take advantage of it and make sacrifices. We will only regret what we did not dare to do."  

The Governor of the Central Bohemia Region, Petra Pecková, who presented the students with their awards today, commented on the importance of the programme by saying: "The DofE programme is an extraordinary opportunity for young people to work on their development, to learn a lot about themselves and the world around us. I admire everyone who got involved and persevered so they could receive the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. I believe that the experience of completing the programme will pay dividends many times over, not only in their future studies, work, but also in their personal lives. Congratulations to all of them, and of course thank you to all the supervisors who work with the programme participants."