The PACT communities that will be present at Rustic Feast are:
Călimăneşti, Vâlcea County Cândeşti, Dâmboviţa county Cocorăştii Mislii, Prahova county Corbeni, Argeş county Găujani, Giurgiu county Spanţov, Călăraşi county Făcăeni, Ialomiţa county Corabia, Olt county
In Călimăneşti, Vâlcea county, the craft of pottery has a long history. Because these days, the community is facing an increased unemployment and migration rate, the community members want to find a solution, and, at the same time, keep alive their tradition and carry on the craft of pottery.
Through the project Education in Education, at least 35 young unemployed people will be trained on the craft of pottery and at the end they will establish an association to defend their interests and help them gain visibility in the marketplace. The project combines the local heritage with the idea to bring new material resources in the community by promoting what they have.
Driven by the desire to have a strong community group that can produce change in the commune, a few people from Cândeşti commune started the initiative group “Active Cândeşti” .
The group believed that by having strong relations within the community and by knowing each other better, the majority of the people will be more keen on cooperating and helping their village and regiondevelop.
Their idea was to revive local traditions by forming a folk dancing group with children from the community. Almost 40 kids took dance lessons and with the help of their parents and school teachers they also managed to organise a small exhibition which promoted the local traditional customs and clothing.
In the end, almost 200 people contributed to the project and got involved in order to have a more active community which values the traditions and wants to keep them alive.
The Association „Visul Verde”, founded in 2007 in Cocorăştii Mislii, Prahova, aims to revive and promote handmade traditional costumes.They also want to pass on from old generations to new ones crafts such as fabrics, handmade sewing, embroidery, spinning.
Within the project Identity, Tradition, Local Welfare implemented by PACT, Visul Verde Association developed a business plan to set up a tailorshop to manufacture traditional costumes, but also items for personal and household use, all of them traditionally decorated.
This workshop is also a new opportunity for young housewives that never worked before to increase their chances of integration on the labor market, as they will be offered training.The profit obtained by selling the productswill be reinvested in the development of the business, and also in new local innitiatives to help other members in the community.
Long-term, the three founding members, Mr. Gabriel Neacşu, Mr. Ion Coleazea and Mrs. Valerica Colezea want to contribute to the social and cultural development of the place.
The initiative group from Corbeni, Argeş countystarted with the desire to help their community develop and preserve the traditions and local crafts..
Long term they want to have a flourishing community with a proper sewerage system and paved roads, with more guesthouses and welcoming homes that will make tourists experience the country life.
Through the work that the community members put into having local food and preparing dishes, they want to take action towards developing into a small resort with bio products straight from the producer and local crafts (brooms, spoons, three leg chairs, tables, furniture, grooves).
As a community member, Ms. Marinela Iusifaru delights us with her handmade dolls. It all started when she was a teenager when from the lack of other opportunities,she started to make dolls. At the beginning, she made the dolls and the clothes using only materials she had around the house. In time, she has started to use other materials as well and improve her skills.
The Association „Traditions-Education-Culture” from Găujani, Giurgiu, was at first an initiative group formed of 5 people. Then, they became an organization with legal entity with the mision to to contribute to the sustainable development of the community by supporting local initiatives, partnerships, and social responsibility.
“Building a future together” was the first project of the group and involved paving the sports field of the school so that the kids would have PE classes there, and also for other activities that will help them keep the community together. This project was for them a stepping stone and they wanted to keep on doing something to help their community develop.
Having this in mind, by the end of the year, the association will establish a tailor shop 14 unemployed women and girls will go to sawing classes and three of them will be hired at the tailor shop. The first product will be a school uniform with traditional local elements, that will pass on and promote the local sewing technique from Găujani.
The initiative group “Together for the Future” from Spanţov, Călăraşi, was at first formed of 4 people, then it expanded to 17. Thus, the idea of having a group of people working locally raised the interest of other community members to work in and for their community.
The main reason behind setting-upthe initiative group was the desire to make a difference in their community and to help people realize the potential they have and which they can use to make positive changes around them.
The initiative group started with redoing the soccer field in the village and also took a step forward and they established as a legal NGO.
Seeing this first step of coagulating the community, many members have become more open to be involved in various innitiatives, and to start new projects because they have managed to overcome their doubts and to gain more trust in themselves.
At present, the Community Development Association “Together for the Future”are running fundraising campaigns for Easter and Christmas to help the disadvantaged families in the community,they are involving over 100 young people as volunteers, and they plan to establish a crafts museum in the future.
The initiative group Făcăeni – Ialomiţa was established out of the desire of the group members to contribute to the social and economical development of their community by valuing their local culture and traditional crafts.
The first initiative of the group was the project „Investing in the future of our children”. By offering the kids a nice way to spend their spare time, after school, the group was also able to pass on to them the local customs. Along with their parents they learnt how to make bread, play the guitar or violin, to paint, to act or to improve their English skills.
The initiative group didn’t stop here. They continued with a social business – developing a furniture workshop out of wicker and bulrush, through which they could pass on to young generation this local craft learned from father to son.The artisan Grigore Ghionea will teach 5 young people from the community the art of making furniture out of wicker and bulrush.
The initiative group Făcăeni – Ialomiţa will continue to help their community to develop and to get more involved into valuing their unique traditions.
Ionel Cococi is the first craftsman in Vadastra pottery after 7,500 years. He embraced pottery in 2000, when he met professor Dragos Gheorghiu from the University of Arts, from Bucharest, within an international project to revive the Neolithic Vadastra pottery. At that time he had nothing to do with pottery, he was just a volunteer who was in charge with the transportation for participants.
Out of curiosity, Mr. Cococi tried alone, at home, to do what he saw the participants within the project wanted to obtain: vases, and other replicas of Neolithic Vădastra pottery. Although he was a person with no beforehand training, one could see the skill and the passion into his first model of vessel from nine years ago, which was exhibited in Germany and UK.