Our friends Attila Sárig and Reka Simo have launched an exciting and ambitious plan to establish "Life School training centre for sustainable farming and living, a place where we can learn those things that civilization has made us forget",.in the Áldomás Valley where some of you have stayed and made hay with them.

They took the first big step, buying the land and buildings where the centre will be.

Most of the €14000 purchase price came from their own savings, supplemented by gifts from me and my mother, and a loan from my Fund.

I invite you to consider supporting this venture with a donation through the Barbara Knowles Fund, managed by Fundatia ADEPT. Through this website http://www.justgiving.com/Barbara-Knowles-Gyimes you can add gift aid to increase the value of the donation.

This is how Attila describes the concept:

“Dear Friends!

We would like to establish a so called "Life School" or "Peasant (farming) School" here in Gyimes. A school where we can teach and train people those things that civilization made them forget. To teach them that they are able to make food with their own hands which is the most important element in life. In the last couple of years I realized what kind of knowledge we possess by being able to create 70-80% of the food we consume; doing this by using almost no fossil fuels.

I would like a facility like this where we can teach people about "Life"; more precisely a way of living in harmony with nature.

If you think that it would be a good idea to start a Life School in Gyimes I would like to ask you to help us gather £6000. For example, in exchange of a donation of £250 we can provide a week long programme with accommodation, food and tutoring in this training centre.

I thank you in advance for all of you who dare support us in this nice plan! In the same time we would welcome all of the contributors in the Life School.

Yours respectfully,
Attila Sárig”

We are also fundraising at http://www.justgiving.com/Barbara-Knowles-Orodik to restore the buildings on a meadow on Orogyik mountain, where some of you slept and mowed at dawn last August.

Thanks for any help you can give to these initiatives, to keep alive the mountain meadows of Gyimes and to teach and inspire a new generation of farmers using traditional methods suited to sustainable living in the modern world.