EYES_WIDE_OPEN

ongoing

We find ourselves in an epoch that scientists call the Anthropocene. This concept is used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a huge and significant impact on the planet’s ecosystems. That has raised the relevance of the concept of sustainability. However the narrative surrounding sustainability as a whole tends to take less into account the perspective of marginalized people and communities and the way they shape and practice healthy lifestyle. Also marginalized communities are often carriers of traditional values and sustainable practices that have to be protect and promote as part of the cultural heritage. EYES_WIDE_OPEN Volunteering Teams in High-Priorities areas, is a project aimed to create counter-narratives to promote healthy lifestyles and cultural heritage preservation for marginalized communities in rural areas and young volunteers with fewer opportunities, in 4 different rural places in Europe: Greece (Hopeland), Bulgaria (Synergy Bulgaria), Italy (NewWellness, LINK Aps). We partners organizations strongly believe in the connection between healthy lifestyle, environment and sustainability. ALso, in line with our direct experience in our local contexts, there is a relevant relationship between cultural heritage and environment. To this extent, the project intends to create a learning opportunity for volunteering teams of young people with fewer opportunities to experiment in an hands-on way new sustainable and healthy lifestyle practices, contributing to the life of marginalized communities in our rural areas and promoting cultural landscape elements and practices in those local areas. Implementing the concept of cultural heritage preservation, also it allows us to reflect upon our relationship with the natural environment.