Many of you who couldn’t come to our «famous» «Ruralise Yourself!» training course, which took place in Valeri, Asturias, 5th to 11th May 2014, have been asking for some information about the results and conclussions of the training course. It is hard to convey everything that happened during those wonder days, but we will do our best to at least share some of it with you readers.
This time we won’t bore you with tons of graphs like we did other times, but we will post only one, maybe the most compelling and representative one:
As you can see, 100% of participants were happy with the general organisation of the course, with 66% being totally happy, 32% being very happy and 2% just happy.
Also, 98% of participants said that their expectations were met!… which we think is totally amazing, because expectations are usually high and it’s so difficult to meet everyones’. We are flattered! 58% of participants said their expectations have been totally met, 30% said very much met and 12% said they were met.
But what we probably care about the most is the answers to the next question, which reflect that the main aim of our training course was achieved!: «Are you more prepared and motivated to live in a rural area?», with an stunning 100% of positive answers!!! 59% feel totally prepared, 25% very prepared and 14% just prepared. We are very excited and proud of this!!
All participants were also willing to make their personal compromises (the ones that they made during the last day of the training course) a reality, and we will see in the following lines that they actually did it, and 98% of them established strong bonds with other participants, which fullfills another one of our aims, which was to expand the network of «ruralisation».
Personal compromises
As we just said, all participants were willing to make their personal compromises a reality, and here are some testimonies which proove that they’ve managed, at least partially!
«Until now, I didn’t go to live in the countryside, but I increased my awareness about living in a more sustainable way. I use more bicycle instead of other means of transport, I buy fruit and vegetables not from big chains but from a small shop with local products, I try to save more electricity, water and to use less plastic bags, utensils, etc.
But the most important thing is that at «Ruralize Yourself» training I saw life from a different perspective. I met people with a very different world view from myself, which opened my eyes to see social and environmental problems from a different angle. More or less I am infiltrated with a consumer mindset, but in Valeri I met people who are just the opposite. We discussed many social, economic and environmental issues and I learned a lot of facts and information I would never know otherwise.» Ignat Stoychev, Bulgaria.
«I just changed the way I was thinking about life, dreams, goals and what I really want to do and to be as a person. I can`t say I made my compromise a reality, cause there is still a long way to pass, but for sure I am working on it all the time. Thank you for everything :)» Lyubomir Kovachev, Bulgaria.
«I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and I did it. I am involved in two projects this summer and I am more active and motivated than before the project. I want to buy a piece of land and so far this hasn’t become a reality but I am sure in time it will». Roxana Vacareanu, Romania (living in Valencia, Spain).
You can read more juicy testimonies from participants in this other post: https://asociacionbiodiversa.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/ruralise-yourself-testimonies/
Guidelines
Together, participants extracted and selected tips and advices, resources, warnings, inspirational questions and drawings from the training course aiming to serve those of you who couldn’t be there with us. This is the result:
Tips and advices
Resources
Warnings
Inspirational questions
Visual messaging
And they then created a giant triptych compiling the best of the best. This (below) is the artistic result. We upload these pictures in full quality so that you can zoom in and read every detail. Enjoy!… and feel free to leave us a comment telling us if you found this useful or not.
Who
What and how
Why
Click here for the second part of the results section: https://asociacionbiodiversa.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/ruralise-yourself-testimonies-ii/
This project has been possible thanks to the financial support of the Youth in Action Programme of the European Commission.
Florent Marcellesi
Asociación Biodiversa 