Speaking to Latvian Radio on April 3, Jaunzeme said that in other years members of individual embassies had participated in the cleaning, but this time they will be combining forces and and cleaning up a common area.
"I have not heard of something like this happening in other countries of the world. This is an indicator of the extent to which we have been able to attract foreign citizens – they live here, work and participate to improve the environment we all share," she said.
The embassies of Sweden, Ireland, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Moldova, Korea, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Georgia, Denmark, the United States, Germany, Turkey, Italy, the UK, Switzerland and Estonia have all signed up to participate, she added.
When asked about the total number of participants in this year's Big Clean-Up, Jaunzeme said that it was stable at between 140,000 and 160,000 every year.
This year's event will take place on April 22, which is International Earth Day, and participation in the cleanup has been confirmed by 42 Latvian municipalities – that is, all of them except for Ogre region.
Full details of how and where to help out are available at the official website: https://talkas.lv/
We are looking forward to taking part in #LielaTalka on 22 April and we encourage everyone else to get involved too! We were honoured to join President Levits at yesterday’s special event with organisers and supporters of this great Latvian initiative! https://t.co/DHz0HWeFUP
— Irish Embassy Riga (@IrelandEmbLat) March 22, 2023
