Rural Eco-Clubs for Adults

Rural areas have few places where adults can learn, meet others and put ideas into practice. RECA created eco-clubs — open, hands-on spaces — in Bavaria, Alentejo and Castilla-La Mancha, and trained the educators who run them. Each partner brought its own focus: in Portugal, repair communities; in Spain, nature and digital fabrication; in Germany, repair and short digital learning units.

Buinho was responsible for the project's quality and results monitoring. In Alentejo it took repair to the villages with a mobile repair lab, supported by parish councils and social workers, and hosted two eco-club experts in Messejana. The Portuguese Repair Cafés brought almost a hundred devices back into use, often repaired by their owners.

The experience led to the article «Repairability as a social inclusion tool for Adult Education», published on EPALE. The project received the Erasmus+ Good Practice label.

• 56 workshops and 6 Eco-Club Days across the three countries, with more than 500 workshop participants and more than 400 visitors on the open days
• 12 Repair Cafés in Portugal, with almost 100 devices repaired
• More than 500 plants and 120 trees planted
• Open Starter Kit for replicating eco-clubs in other regions

Project website

Partners