From the 12th to 16th October, 2023 the project managers of each 8 partner organizations (with the exception of the Ukrainian representative who was with us online) all met up in France, Lucay-le-male, which is actually the residence of ARGM organization, one of the partners of this project.
This organization is located in the heart of France, 3 hours south from Paris, surrounded by lush green forests. Château d’Oublaise is the seat of ARGM, which is a historic monumental building and accounts as home for spiritual and cultural seekers. The land of the organization is over 80 hectare including a lot of fields and forests, which has been a perfect venue for anyone who is interested in nature and its various aspects. Visitors frequently come to visit the organization, as it is in the centre of France where one can easily visit well-known places, rich with its patrimony. The visitors and guests love to surcharge their energy through forest walks. The members of the organization encourage cultural seekers to come and experience the ecological lifestyle that is led there. The community life revolves around the simple living, high thinking lifestyle. Ecological farming is the essence of their traditional way of growing fruits, vegetables and flowers for the community. Cows and pets are also part of the community and are treated as family members and looked after with care and love.
In the community’s youth department they welcome volunteers and have different courses available to everyone, such as yoga, cooking, Ayurveda, playing instruments, pottery, archery, as well as education about ecological farming by qualified teachers.
During the 3-day-long assembly the goal was to have a more in depth meeting to discuss project implementation, make further endeavours in developing the project, its activities and results, as well as to meet some local entrepreneurs and discover some of the rural opportunities.
On the first day we visited the place of Château d’Oublaise, the large property surrounded by its magnificient forests. It is a farming community focusing on ecological agriculture and the goal of its community members is to be as self-sufficient and eco-friendly as they can. The residents are slowly making steps in that direction, they work on develeoping their own water system, electricity and other resources.
During the first day of the meeting the project managers thoroughly discussed the project achievements and activities, moreover, they set up further action items for the project teams as well as individual partner organizations. Later in the afternoon we had a presentation on ISKCON Environmental Initiative by Chandni Raj, who is a strategy consultant in named project. Her presentation has also focused on water energy – specifically how the local community uses water resources and how it can be improved. The initiative’s aim is to help rural communities become climate friendly, amongst many other aspects, which can contribute to communities to become sustainable on various levels.
On the second day the project management team discussed the to-be organized Learning, Teaching, Training Activity (LTTA) in Ukraine, and after all the arguments made a decision to shift the venue of the last LTTA meeting to Italy, because of the situation in war-torn Ukraine. After our meeting session and workshop on further dissamination activities of the project, we met with two local entrepreneurs. The first one, Claudine Velayoudon, a physiotherapist who shared with us her life experiences in the field, how she got into it, what her thoughts were on working in the countryside and her general work experience, and the second, Sylvain Porté who has a gong and singing bowls business (often used by sound therapists and others), who also shared his experience on how he made his livelihood by running this kind of business. We were inspired by their stories, and hope you will be enthused to once we have further developed the learning platform and share more about these entrepreneurships.
On the third day of the meeting we discussed and made plans on multiplier events and further dissemination activities, the educational platform, as well as preliminary plans for the last LTTA of the project. We visited Martin Krogsgaard, a local entrepreneur who grows most of his own food, making his own flour amongst other things. We got first hand experience about the process of making flour from the beginning to the end! He showed us every step from growing wheat to making it into flour. He also works as a professional landscape gardener and goes to his clients’ places to do the work.
During the last day we presented the project of Rural Entrepreneurship for You(th) to the local community, which was broadcasted live, and where we had a lively questions and answers session as well.
We are thankful to our hosts for their utmost hospitality. Vive la France!
