Back to Villages (YE), Greece

Participants:

-6 partner countries (Greece, Finland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania, Italy)

-5 participants per country (1 leader and 4 participants 18-25 years old)

There will be at least one participant with fewer opportunities in each national group

Some of the participants live in cities and some of them live in rural areas. We believe that the fact that we come from different areas will lead to

creative dialogue and surprising results.

Topic:

According to statistics, three quarters of the European population live in urban areas (source: Eurostat), while most of them are not connected

to nature. Meanwhile, one of the EU goals is to be climate neutral by 2050. We think that one way to enhance this goal is decentralization,

combined with sustainable agriculture. The idea about this project was initially born by three participants of the Greek team that study

agricultural sciences and have experienced in person the opportunities this field can offer to anyone that is interested in it. The urge to

question the modern urban lifestyle and the waves of urbanization of the last century led us to seek sustainable alternatives, in order to live a

healthier and more qualitative life. We intend to find and highlight the benefits of a non-urban lifestyle, connected to a sustainable food chain

system, including agricultural and farming techniques, as well as agrotourism and circular economy. The Greek and Finnish youngsters,

sharing the same concerns about this issue, we decided to bring into being this youth exchange in Yamochori , Greece, a place that is

create from the Greek participants.

OBJECTIVES

-Learn how to reuse our daily garbage and things we do not use anymore (e.g. clothes, bags) in a creative way, instead of throwing them

away.

-Promote the three R’s culture (reduce, reuse, recycle).

-Discuss about the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and relevant activities and workshops in order to embody them into our project and

way of thinking.

-Enhance the goal of EU to be climate neutral by 2050

-Visit two local small-scale animal farms and realise the different environmental impact between large-scale and small-scale farms.

-Visit the local water system that takes water from river, which provides with water a large agricultural area.

-Interact with locals and learn how respectful they are to the environment.

-Cultivate the connection between people of different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

-Attempt to connect ourselves with a natural and traditional way of living in an agricultural region.

-Meet a young person that lives in a mountainous village of less than 10 habitats and discuss how he manages to have a stable income.

We want to address the fact that, in order to sustain our planet and our mental health, we need to seek different lifestyles and be decisive enough

to change our own lifestyle. Our planet needs protection and the need of sustainability is more necessary than ever before. Therefore, our

activities will be related to the following:

1) Sustainable alternatives to urban lifestyle

2) Reconnect with nature, because we believe that this is where the human species belongs

3) Realistic opportunities that life in the countryside can offer

4) Qualitative lifestyle

5) Determination of taking the decision to move from a city to a rural area

6) Situation of urbanization in different countries

7) Basic agricultural practices

8) Entrepreneurship in rural ares

9) Agrotouristic businesses

More information here:

https://bit.ly/3AoaWQY