Only one out of four people of the EU population lives in rural areas. There is a need for alternative models, for a new renaissance of rural life, as an answer for burning global environmental, social challenges and incredibly growing food prices. Our main goal is to provide adult education that helps people to resettle in rural areas, by choosing a life path that is connected to nature. This life path is environmentally conscious, community oriented, economically sustainable, and luxuriously simple. A person walking this life path becomes multi-skilled along the way, with not only having the ability to sustain itself with food and simple comfort, but also successfully participating in the economy. Followers of this life path are able to organize themselves into various kinds of communities. We present a possible model, an alternative carrier option for two main target groups in the age group of 20-45 in Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia: those people who are dreaming about moving to the countryside to have a natural life, but struggle with challenges; and those people, who live in poverty in rural areas with low levels of education. Our third target group are teachers, 25-90-year-old authentic experts of natural village life; in this project we work for their better visibility, reputation, networking and communication skills. The project takes advantage of the fact, that in this partnership we represent three different models: Hungary – an informal group of like-minded people blended within an average village Slovakia – an emerging ecovillage of people living scattered in a valley Slovenia – an intentional community of a group closely working together This variety enables us to explore diverse solutions for revitalization of rural areas. We organize Villager‘s Pilot Courses in the three countries for altogether 48 students. The Pilot Course is interesting and interactive, one can try lot of things from cutting grass with scythe to preparing goat cheese, from dramatic group crisis game to tasting how it is spending an evening like great-grandma, from designing of a rainwater collecting system to plans of starting an environmental friendly business. It is a combination of a university seminar, a tourist attraction, and a survival trip. These courses are organized on national level, for local people, but planned together, with the inspiration of the international team. They consist of winter, spring, summer and autumn sessions, and online tasks in-between. An important outcome is the Curriculum for the Villager's Course that can be shared with other multiplicators, and provided by the three member organisations in the future for new students, on a yearly regular basis. A short film is made to give an impression of the atmosphere and content to the wider public. Furthermore, we develop two helpful toolkits for people who want to move to rural areas, or already live there. Villager‘s Guide is a manual published online, and Villager‘s Interactive Game and Photo Exhibition is a printed material. These materials have a special point of view – alternative life path – and information is gathered around this main line. They are designed to answer FAQ and typical attitudes, for example: “I like nature, but how do I make a living out there?“ Their content is clear and easy to understand, they include as visual aid 24 communicative photos with a concentrated message expressed in a sentence (with humour, wisdom, poetry). Instead of compiling an encyclopedia of all possible options we highlight exciting, realistic and tangible examples. We inspire the students to explore and research more. Chapters: Basics of self-sufficiency, Best practices of cooperation in a community, Luxurious simplicity, Ways to make a living As an impact of this project we significantly upgrade our internal teams and educational programs. As a result of national and international dissemination activities we share our intellectual outputs with many, and strengthen networking among NGOs and educational institutions of this field. To attract attention to our project we use elements of the photo series with attention-grabbing sentences for campaigns in the social media and general press work. An important part of our communication activities is directed towards the municipalities of depleted rural areas. We look for ways of possible cooperation with the aim of attracting people to these regions. Our hope is that small settlements of Europe transform, like the caterpillar becomes a butterfly!
Our main goal was to provide adult education that helps people to resettle in rural areas, by choosing a life path that is connected to nature. This life path is environmentally conscious, community oriented, economically sustainable, and luxuriously simple. A person walking this life path becomes multi- skilled along the way, with not only having the ability to sustain itself with food and simple comfort, but also successfully participating in the economy. He/she and his/her counterparts are able to organize themselves into various kinds of communities. Community life gives enormous added value, an increased potential to satisfy physical, social, economical, cultural needs. Our intention was to present a possible model, an alternative carrier option for two main target groups in the age group of 20-45 in Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and other countries of Europe: those people who are dreaming about moving to the countryside to have a natural life; and those people, who live in rural areas but face challenges there. Our third target group are teachers, 25-90-year-old authentic experts of natural village life; in this project we strive for their better visibility, reputation, networking and communication skills.
Only one out of four people of the EU population lives in rural areas. Traditional lifestyles in villages of Europe disappeared. There is a need for alternative models, for a new renaissance of rural life. Reintegration of people within nature could be part of the solution for burning environmental and social crises. Incredibly growing food prices highlight the importance of this issue. There is a growing number of people in the age group of 20-45 that live in cities and dream about moving to the countryside. They want to have a healthy, more self-sufficient, community oriented and sustainable rural life. Lots of printed and online materials are available for them in related themes, for example organic farming. But there is no single one that would holistically and thoroughly prepare a person planning to settle down and have a successful life in the countryside. There is a need to develop educational processes and materials that have a special point of view – alternative life path – where information is gathered around this main line.