Scholarship Programme - review on 2022

Making practical experiences in a different country

Our journey into the hemp business
Maja and Artem (LT) spent the last 2 weeks of August 2022 at Obelisk Farm, LV.
You can read about their experiences and learnings here in their report. Their report also includes an interview they did with a young couple who have started their own agricultural business ".... I was a city boy and my wife is a local here. When we met and started our family we lived in a city at first, but then we decided that our children needed more space to live and explore, so we started looking for abandoned houses and land. It was not very easy but our efforts were fulfilled. We bought a house and purchased this land .."
You can also read the report of Deborah and Andris, the hosts from Obelisk farm, and get and idea what a scholarship at their farm could offer "..But we also felt that it was important that Maja and Artem would get to know more about our village and surrounding towns. Living on the farm can be quite isolated and not allow one to get a fully immersive experience of the region as a whole. .."
Read the whole report here
You can find more host organisations here

COB, a farm in Nessonas, GR, almost impossible to find in the map.
"I don’t think a book will be enough for describing all the things and the technologies that are in the farm", Annachiara from Italy went to Greece for a traineeship at
Building with Earth, COB.
COB is a social cooperative based in Larisa, Greece. They are experimenting with natural building and natural farming. Read more about Annachiara’s experiences and lessons learned here
You can find more host organisations here

Participating in international events

In 2022 Forum Synergies supported young people to participate in international events

European Rural Parliament, Kielce, PL, September 2022
Participants were contributing to the Rural World Cafe organised by youth and participated in the field trips and other workshops. They were involved in policy discussions and contributing to the "Rural People’s Declaration of Kielce 15th September 2022".
(For an overview on the study visits and the whole programme, please visit the ERP2022 website).
Levin Petersen, DE, was invited to hold an inspirational speech in one of the plenary sessions to present his perspective on the future on his home island of Pellworm. Read his speech here

• Conclusions on the Youth World Café (read here)

Rural Resilience Gathering, Plessé, FR, September, October 2022
. "Cultivating the future together" is the header to present the ARC2020 project "Nos campagnes en resilience" (read more about the project here. Trhough the scholarship programme Forum Synergies enabled young people from ES, GR, HU to participate in the event and to get to know interesting projects.
The community of Plessé also is contributing to our book "Rural Europe Takes Action", read their story on page 38ff in the online version