For the third year already, gallery “Daugava” and patron Guntis Rāvis supports the new artists of Latvia, granting them the scholarship named after the remarkable painter Boriss Bērziņš. This year, the recipients of the scholarship are the students of the Art Academy, who stood out by good works at the spring display of drawings –1^styear student Jolanta Basova, 2^ndyear student Zane Lemeša and 5^thyear student Sanda Skujiņa.

Jolanta Basova, the 1^styear student of the Art Academy of Latvia: “I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I was chosen as one of the recipients of Boriss Bērziņš Scholarship. As before studying in the Art Academy I had not studied at any art schools and had only been working without assistance, this special evaluation provided huge satisfaction for me. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to gallery “Daugava” and patron Guntis Rāvis for this opportunity – I consider this a great motivation for the students of Art Academy.”

Students are granted scholarships for one year – till the spring display of drawings of the next year. The goal of the scholarship is to support the new artists and to promote their professional growth.

Guntis Rāvis, entrepreneur:“I am truly glad that there are such talented and promising new artists in Latvia. The Boriss Bērziņš Scholarship was created to support the very best students of the Art Academy and to give them inspiration for new works. In my opinion, the recipients this year have shown really good performance and I hope that they will also relate their professional activities to art further in life.”

On Saturday, 30 April, the “Lielā Talka” took place in all of Latvia gathering a record number of participants – 190 000 residents of Latvia. In Riga, the cleanup participants collected 175 tons of waste.

Among the most active cleanup participants were also the group organised by the patron of the cleanup, State President Valdis Zatlers, which was represented by three teams – team of the State President, team of the supporter “Skonto Būve” Ltd and team of the organisers of the “Lielā Talka”. Six tons of various waste were collected at the border of Ziepniekkalns forest.

State President admitted that exactly on the day of the cleanup we notice that every year Latvia becomes cleaner and cleaner: “If I want good things to happen with me, then I need to be in a good environment. Last summer and also this spring, when travelling along the districts of Latvia, it is felt that our environment is changing for the good. And it means that something changes for the good in us as well.”

Also, the manager of the “Lielā Talka” movement, Vita Jaunzeme, by joining the invitation of Skonto Būve Ltd to become more environmentally responsible every day, not only on the day of the “Lielā Talka”, admitted that this year cleanup participants had less work and that there wasn’t as much waste now, people are becoming more aware and educated.

On Monday, 11 April at the University of Latvia Hall “Lielā Aula” “Skonto Būve” Ltd together with the Patron of the „Lielā Talka”, State President Valdis Zatlers participated in the meeting of the cleanup coordinators and urged all the residents of Latvia to participate in the „Lielā Talka” on 30 April, the goal of which is to make Latvia the cleanest country in the world.

State President Valdis Zatlers acknowledged: “It gives me joy to take part in the „Lielā Talka”, because I love our beautiful land and my beautiful native town. The „Lielā Talka” days are days, when we all work together and in particular this cooperation between people is what we need, in order for our nation and country to gain strength and become happier. ”

Ilona Bušmane, board member of “Skonto Būve” urged people to be environmentally responsible and to take part in the „Lielā Talka”, indicating that also “Skonto Būve” will try to set an example by participating in the Cleanup, by cleaning the legacy of the soviet times – the goudron ponds and also by launching a major nature resources restoration project this year. 

Construction work has been restarted in the Riga Nativity Orthodox Cathedral, part of the “SVET” project, the most far-reaching renovation project involving cultural monuments in Latvia. The first stage of the work is to prepare the surface of the bell tower cupola for gilding. Processing work on the cupola will commence at the end of April, but the gilding work is scheduled for July. During that work, experienced specialists will cover the eighty square metre surface of the bell tower cupola with golden sheets. The Cathedral’s bell tower cross cap will be replaced by a brand new one which will be similar to the caps on the Cathedral’s small towers.

The Cathedral’s renovation project is being implemented with the support of the patron of the “SVET” project and the initiator of the work, Mr Guntis Rāvis, as well as being supported by public donations. Upon the commencement of the Cathedral renovation project, Guntis Rāvis made the first donation himself, amounting to 40,000 Ls, and to date almost 2,000 Ls have been collected by means of the portal, ziedot.lv, and the donation hotline on 9000 6288. A further 6,000 Ls are still required to perform the gilding work on the bell tower and the construction of the cross cap. People are invited to support the project by donating one Lat throughout the period of the project until its projected end in September.

To motivate young people to study engineering sciences and science subjects, Riga Technical University in cooperation with “Skonto Būve” organised a scientific research competition “Come and Study at RTU!”

From the forty-five scientific research papers submitted to the competition in the final, ten papers were presented to the jury of experts on 12 March.

The first place and prize money of 600 lats were awarded to the Tukums Rainis Gymnasium team “Smaidiņi” – Oskars Kupcš and Kristiāns Melnis, whose research was devoted to one of the wind energy utilisation devices – wind concentrator WindCube or the wind tunnel. The second place and prize money of 400 lats were awarded to Jūrmala State Gymnasium team “RFID Jūrmala” – Gints Zariņš, Māris Riņģis and Roberts Andžāns for their research “The Options of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Technology in the Location of Objects”. But the third place and prize money of 200 lats were awarded to the Talsi State Gymnasium team “Talsu Māls” – Valts Bidzāns and Elvis Brūvers, who had developed a research project entitled “Application of Clay Granules in the Treatment of Dye Polluted Water.”