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“We Rural”
Have you ever thought about a possibility to travel and study at zero cost?
And what about trying specialties of other continents?|
If we tell you that all that is simple and possible, would you believe us?
“We have always felt a sense of belonging to a reality that was no longer related only to the single membered countries, but to the one great country where are the problems are common.”
August 17, is the date when our adventure to Cerveruela started, a small rural place near the city of Zaragoza. There were our fellow travelers who were waiting for us, who were coming from 3 different countries: Spain, Malta, and Armenia. Days used to start with the ‘energizer’, short games that were meant to activate our brains.
All kinds of activities were organized in the morning and in the afternoon. Often and willingly it was the matter of the question of interesting debates and presentations regarding rurality, nature, sustainability, and its pillars. Because of these reasons, there were so many moments of sharing when everyone could have expressed himself/herself, listening and respecting other people’s opinions. But, it was not only about that. We have always felt a sense of belonging to a reality that was no longer related only to the single membered countries, but to the one great country where are the problems are common.
“All these activities thanks to another European project called Young Entrepreneurs”
Later, it happened that we had times for the excursions, both into the nature of Cerveruela looking for Sources, wild animals, or during the constellations of the night sky, and neighboring places such as Anento, Daroca, and Lechon, in order to find out their story and received evidences of the brave youngsters who have invested their money and passion by opening some activities in their rural countrysides.
We have had a possibility, for example, to visit family businesses which are producing hydromel, learning about the production process with her advantages and difficulties; besides the owner offered us small tastings of the various hydromel products, in order to let us find out different aromas and decide if we will buy the bottles.
Speaking about the hostel where we stayed for that time period, El Tio Carrascon, I would like to mention that it is run by three girls who decided to offer more opportunities to their rural countryside. Using the beauty of nature to attract tourists, there were made a kind of jobs that allow them to live and that help the entire population. All these activities run by youngsters became a real thing thanks to another European project called Young Entrepreneurs, one of the main projects built to help youngsters to improve, to become more competitive on the market and to become more conscious like European citizens.
Sharing all these experiences was possible also thanks to dishes which were consumed all together around one and only big table and above all thanks to the organization of the intercultural evening. On the laden table, there were all the typical products: an explosion of the colors, perfumes, and flavors coming from our fellow traveler’s countries that carried us to the villages and to their traditions. Our youth exchange week started practically ended before we realized it.
Between activities, games and small talks we didn’t have time to get bored, and we have learned a lot. The objective of the project “We Rural” was to do everything possible to bring youngster closer to countrysides and villages, generally speaking, to bring them closer to the rural areas, boosting them to engage more actively in the progress of their local communities. In that way, youngsters like us, are growing and maturing one new vision of the Europe that is based on the solidarity, sustainability, and sharing.
This project, in fact, helped us to become more active citizens, also thanks to two campaigns that we have successfully realized and shared on social networks, and those we are still improving. One of those two campaigns, still active, it is proposed to achieve Objectives of Sustainable Development (OSD or SDG (Sustainable Development Goals)). Days that we have spent in Spain really changed us, because of this reason we are suggesting the experience of youth to you as well, hoping that it will make you as rich as it made us. We are sending you kind regards, and if you would like to help us with our campaign, typing: #WeRural on social networks and sharing our post.
Article was written by Silvia Canova
Article translated by Biljana Dajic
