"Why We Matter" is a project created by four schools located in rural areas of Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland and Spain that are experiencing a process of rural population drift. Many teenagers living in these regions only complete basic education because they believe a higher education will not give them the possibility to develop a career in rural areas. Besides, other students move to bigger cities once they finish their higher studies, a tendency that aggravates rural depopulation. With "Why We Matter" we want to modify this tendency. The objective of this project is to make students aware of the historical, social and economic importance of rural areas across Europe and also to show them the possibilities these areas can offer for the future of educated young people. We expect to reduce school dropping in rural areas by highlighting the economic and social potential of their regions and to encourage students to continue studying and training to learn how to create innovative business that can revitalise the regions and ensure them a prosperous and sustainable life in a rural region. Students from 13-17 years old will take part in this project, as well as groups of teachers from each school. All of them share a common rural background and many students are at risk of leaving school once they complete their basic studies. The activities we have created have been designed to focus on the recovery of their origins, value the importance of rural areas and identify the potential of these places for the future of younger generations in terms of education and employment. In the different activities students have to collect data about the changes of their villages through history, reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural area, analyse demographic data or make posters to display demographic changes and the cultural heritage of their villages. They will also interview people who live in cities about life in a village, as well as old people from their villages (neighbours, grandparents…) to analyse social and economic changes through history. They will also design an innovative company for their regions and think about the essential elements to create an ideal village. In all these activities we will implement a project-based methodology because in each activity students will have to work collaboratively and integrate contents of different subjects to create different final products: posters, documentaries, brochures... Students will do most of the work and they will have to learn how to research and mediate with their foreign peers. The whole project is about getting in contact and valuing other realities from across Europe, but also valuing the towns where they live, no matter how big they are, and feel proud of them. We believe that these activities will have an impact not only in the participants of the project, but also on the whole local communities because the outcomes of the activities of the project could be used to revitalise the villages in the long-term, for example by implementing these results to create tourism strategies or by presenting ideas of feasible innovative companies to be created in the regions. This project is a good opportunity to show students, parents and policy makers the need to preserve and revitalise rural areas for the future not only of their inhabitants, but also of the whole Europe.
"Why We Matter" has been a project created by three schools located in rural areas of Bulgaria, Lithuania and Spain that have been experiencing a process of rural population drift. Usually,many teenagers living in these regions only complete basic education because they believe a higher education will not give them the possibility to develop a career in rural areas. Besides, other students move to bigger cities once they finish their higher studies, a tendency that aggravates rural depopulation. With "Why We Matter" we wanted to modify this tendency. The objective of this project was to make students aware of the historical, social and economic importance of rural areas across Europe and also to show them the possibilities these areas could offer for the future of educated young people. We expected to reduce school dropping in rural areas by highlighting the economic and social potential of their regions and to encourage students to continue studying and training to learn how to create innovative business that could revitalise the regions and ensure them a prosperous and sustainable life in a rural area. Students from 13-17 years old took part in this project, as well as groups of teachers from each school. All of the youngsters share a common rural background and many students are at risk of leaving school once they complete their basic studies. The activities we created were designed to focus on the recovery of their origins, value the importance of rural areas and identify the potential of these places for the future of younger generations in terms of education and employment. In the different activities students had to collect data about the changes of their villages through history, reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of living in a rural area, analyse demographic data or make posters to display demographic changes and the cultural heritage of their villages. to analyse social and economic.Furthermore, they had to design an innovative company for their regions and think about the essential elements to create an ideal village. In all these activities we implemented a project-based methodology because in each activity students had to work collaboratively and integrate contents of different subjects to create different final products: posters, documentaries, brochures... Students did most of the work and they had to learn how to research and mediate with their foreign peers. The whole project was about getting in contact and valuing other realities from across Europe, but also valuing the towns where they live, no matter how big they are, and feel proud of them. We believe that these activities had an impact not only in the participants of the project, but also on the whole local communities because the outcomes of the activities of the project could be used to revitalise the villages in the long-term, for example by implementing these results to create tourism strategies or by presenting ideas of feasible innovative companies to be created in the regions. This project has been a good opportunity to show students, parents and policy makers the need to preserve and revitalise rural areas for the future not only of their inhabitants, but also of the whole Europe.