The Municipal Library in Sedlčany has chosen the Earth Charter as the theme for the 7th year of the community project entitled Lukášek (short for Saint Lucas, the patron saint of surgeons, physicians and painters). Blanka Tauberová, Senior Executive of the Municipal Library in Sedlčany, and a volunteer project coordinator Iva Fiserova, believe in “healing” human relations with the help of visual arts, education and various creative activities

The town of Sedlčany with its 7,623 inhabitants lies 70 km south of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The municipal library, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2007, has always played a key role in promoting culture and education in the town and serving as a community center as an ideal space for various types of community activities including exhibitions, talks, lectures, and educational courses. It is a so-called ‘family-type’ library and in October 2007 a new community center was built as its integral part.

Soon after project’s 7th year begun and progressed, the leaders of the local and neighboring schools and other organizations involved in it, decided to keep the theme of the Earth Charter for the next school year, 2010-2011, as it was obvious that the Earth Charter provides a solid ethical foundation for building a sustainable community. Within one year the library became an Earth Charter Affiliate and began to reach out to other partners in the Czech Republic to introduce the Charter to the broader public in their country.

Their first partner became Czech students´ organization UESS SPODEK, at the Czech Agricultural University, lead by Pavel Pšenička. In December 2009 UESS SPODEK became an Earth Charter Affiliate. Under the auspices of UESS SPODEK, these two organisations developed the Czech national Earth Charter website and are now working on translating and publishing the EC brochure in the Czech language. They also cooperate with Prof. Jana Dlouha who works at the Environmental Center of the famous Charles University. Prof. Dlouha has included several EC educational materials in the foundation environmental course mandatory for all the students of the Charles University.

There exists an opinion that in the time of financial crisis the civil society in the country is very fragmented, and our Czech Affiliates hope that the EC as a document expressing moral values for sustainability can be a great support in bringing these fragments together and help build up the community based on its holistic vision. Says Eva Fiserova: “This encompassing document can bring together those who feel isolated in their efforts and/or too small to solve the huge problems we have been facing. At the same time I hope the EC can help us heal our fragmented selves to our whole selves by changing the awareness of who we are as human beings and relearning to feel an integral part of the community of life”.