Tens of thousands of pupils and students around the world are not planning to go to school on Friday, March 15. They are hitting the streets to make their voice heard. “Dear adults, use your power,” is the message they are sending to those in power who are able to deal with climate change.
More than 1,200 town and cities in 92 countries signed up for the strikes. Three of them are in Slovakia. These strikes are organised mainly by pupils, often even children too young to express their opinion in elections. That is also the case of the 17-year-old Sandra Bulla, one of the people behind the protests in Slovakia.
“Now is the time for young people to connect,” she told The Slovak Spectator. “I'm happy that they are aware that our future is in danger.”
Spontaneous action
Bulla, who studies graphic design in high school, decided to organise the Slovak strike when she clicked on the map of worldwide strike initiatives to find that Slovakia was not among the countries where one would take place during spring break. When she was finished with the registration of the country and creating the Facebook event, it was already 1:00 a.m.
“It was a really spontaneous decision,” she said.
When she shared the event later, people started joining and the event grew bigger and bigger, she momentarily doubted what she had gotten herself into.