Youth Exchange

PEGALAJAR

La charca y el limón de Judea

(A cultural experience learning about environment and rural development in Spain)

(3. – 15. July 2015)

Name of the youth exchange: Pilla tu semilla y acribilla. Y acribilla la charca y el limón de Judea.

Dates: 03.07. – 15.07.2015

Place, region, country: Pegalajar (Jaen), Andalusia, Spain

Meeting place (and time): Jaen train station on 03.07.2015 (hour will be determined)

Participants: young adults, including minors. Participants should be interested in volunteering, culture and enviroment. Participants with special needs and less opportunituies are welcome.

Age of participants: 18 – 25

Total number of participants: 22

Number of participants per org: 4, number of leaders per org: 1

Involved countries: Belgium, France, Greece, Ukraine and Spain

The Project

Pegalajar is a small village town located very close to the town of Jaen, in the North of Andalusia where citizens in the last 20 years have been working on a project to restore an ancient irrigation and farming system developed by the Moors on a hillside where a spring in the center of the town runs into a reservoir in the town square from where the water is channeled into a series of irrigation ditches that run throughout terraced gardens built all the way down the slope to the valley below, filled with fertile soil brought from miles away. Despite the fact that the spring and reservoir and canals and gardens were the origin and had been the lifeline of the town for ages, several years ago the spring and reservoir went dry. The gardens were abandoned. Almost all the fruit trees, (apart from few saved pomegranates and figs) died.

The town is close to the much larger city of Jaen and in recent decades many weekenders built vacation country homes and unauthorized wells that depleted the groundwater supply. A group of concerned residents came together to reverse this situation. And they succeeded! After a long hard fight, they managed to have the wells closed. The spring recently began to flow again, the reservoir is full of water, several of the collapsed terrace walls have been rebuilt, and a handful of old-timers and educated youths are planting gardens and selling their surplus produce in the village square.

It is an extremely inspiring story. But their struggle is far from over. The single crop olive farmers are vying for the water for ever more olive trees (traditionally a dry-land crop), the walls that sustain the terrace gardens continue to collapse, and few townsfolk appreciate the importance of maintaining the heritage irrigation conduits and heirloom crops.

Near Pagalajar, in Jodar, there is an association Huerto de la Cora, with their project Huerto del Mundo.

Huerto de la Cora is an association which promotes the implementation of agroecology. Probably you are asking yourself what exactly agroecology stands for? We can say it is a science, not an ideology, for the development of agriculture in harmony with the eco systems and the social and cultural heritage.

It is a kind of mixture of agrology, environment and anthropology and it is the consequence of researches and investigations done by professors at universities.

Basically Huerto de la Cora tries to recover the local seeds for vegetables, which represent an immense world heritage created during centuries, investigates the plants produced and distributes the seeds in a free open way among people interested in self-gardening and food sovereignty.

The volunteers will help to construct the different parts of Huerto del Mundo (The Garden of the World). That means moving stones, sand and cement. It means that it’s a hard work. The idea is gathering volunteers that like constructing or that like agriculture but basically volunteers motivated about the horrible consequences of a policy which can lead us to lose food sovereignty.

We will try to visit the location during the last days of the youth exchange.

De Amicitia has conection with a local group made of active citizens who have been struggling for the last 20 years. They are now interested to get some external support and to get somehow new energy. The idea of organising workcamps in the summertime is a seduccing proposal De Amicitia has made them and they are really interested in taking such iniciative.

In this context, Youth Exchange in 2013 in Pegalajar was a pilot project that served to organize two workcamps in the following years and therefore we will contune to introduce the village to foreign youngsters and develop a historical-cultural-environmental exchange program for youngsters coming from Belgium, France Greece and Spain. Some activities will deal with the cultural heritage as Pegalajar has been an important cross-road between Arabic and Christian culture in Spain. Some activities will deal with environment and it is planned to do some volunteer work in the neighbourhood, trying to encourage the locals to think of what kind of town they want for the future, and the importance of sustainable rural development. The main value of this exchange is that young people learn to build a different society and that we can create a beses where workcamsp can be developend next years, together with the support of the municipallity city council.

We will also try to improve knowledge of the situation and position of young people in rural areas, encourage entrepreneurship, sensitize the valuation of rural and promote their active participation in the development of their territories.

The working methods and learning methodology with practical through volunteering and theoretical strategies and will be designed to encourage active participation of young people. But …. there will be a lot of time for social life, fun and to participate in the Local Events or Fiestas in the area if we find them.

About Pegalajar

Pegalajar is a beatiful village located close to Jaen. The main economical activity is local tourism but they also deal with other services. Moreover, the great value and cultural heritage of the city is allowing tourism development that will complement the local economy and disseminate the image and history of this noble village.

In the last years, because of the economical crisis agriculture has been regarded as a possibility for young people with no job offers.

Pagalajar and Jodar are surrounded by the Natural Park of Sierra Magina with is a natural area with high quality lansdcape, pure and nearly virgin.

Practical information

22 young people between 18 and 25 years, 5 participants (4 participants + 1 leader per country). Participation for people between 25 and 30 and minor 18 can be negotiated. Participants should be interested in volunteering, culture and enviroment. Participants with special needs and less opportunituies are welcome.

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