Griébal is an Aragonese village that was abandoned when its land was flooded due to the construction of the Mediano reservoir. In 1990, the use of the Griébal village centre and its surroundings was ceded to be converted into a youth centre, currently managed by the Griébal Scout Foundation. The project is an important educational work for our young people. It promotes volunteering, the use of sustainable resources and offers activities in nature that revitalise rural areas at risk of exclusion.
National
Spain
Griébal, Huesca, Aragón.
Mainly rural
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Pedro Last name: Ausejo de Miguel Gender: Male Age: 29 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes Nationality: Spain If relevant, please select your other nationality: Spain Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: C/fernando de antequera 2. bloque C Town: Zaragoza Postal code: 50006 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 663 36 75 51 E-mail:griebal@griebal.org Website:https://griebal.org/
The Griébal Scout Foundation is tackling the task of recovering the Griébal centre to turn it into a camping centre for children and young people, bringing it back to life and offering alternative leisure activities.
The main themes that affect young people and that are developed in Griébal are framed within the sustainable development objectives: education for health, education for entrepreneurship, education for gender equality, environmental education and education in values. Furthermore, at Griébal we seek to develop and raise the awareness of young people as members of their respective communities for the common good and mutual collaboration among its members. The main objective is to achieve an environmentally sustainable centre and to form citizens committed to their communities and to respect and care for the natural environment.
The natural conditions of Griébal make the village a unique setting for the development of activities aimed at children and young people to raise awareness and respect for nature, committing to support and develop improvements in the rural environment within a philosophy of sustainable development.
All this tasks have been approached from two perspectives that are consubstantial to the scout movement itself: volunteering and respect for the environment.
If there is one thing that sets this rehabilitation project apart from other similar projects, it is the leading role that the voluntary work of young people has been given in the recovery of the environment. In Griébal, the process is as important, if not more so, than the practical results.
Volunteering
Sustainability
Environment
Reconstruction
Recovery
The main challenge for the Griébal Scout Foundation was to convert the village into a centre for children and young people, which implied the rehabilitation of the buildings and the use of the territory for educational practices aimed at children and young people with the minimum possible environmental impact, a task approached through volunteering and respect for the environment.
Another of the fundamental actions was the installation of a Nature Classroom for the training of youth educators. The efforts of voluntary work allowed the consolidation of a space for this purpose, but its fitting out and equipping still far exceeds the economic possibilities of the Foundation, which needs external resources to achieve this.
During the first years, work was carried out to clear 100 hectares, restoring the native undergrowth structure with special attention to the original remains of oak and juniper trees in the middle of a reforestation forest.
The environmental benefits generated by the project can be seen in the improvement of the health of the forest mass on which simple pruning and clearing work has been carried out; the recovery of the ethnological heritage that involves the full conservation of a centre with the characteristics of popular architecture that it had before its abandonment; the balance achieved between the practice of camping activities with respect for the environment and the direct involvement of hundreds of young people in a task of recovery and promotion of an abandoned centre.
Another of the tasks carried out was the recovery/sanitation of the GR-19 and the Griébal roads, and work was also started on the adaptation of the village to minimise the risk of fires during the summer period.
The environmental education programme that Griébal carries out with its visitors, completely free of charge, involves raising awareness among visitors from all over Europe and exporting the results obtained to all the points of origin of each of the visitors.
From the outset, the focus of the project has been to give young people a leading role in the rehabilitation of the village and its surroundings.
More important than recovering a house, has been who recovers the house. This is because of the active education component that permeates scouting; this orientation has sometimes detracted from the effectiveness of the tangible results, but it is what makes it unique in comparison to other initiatives.
Griébal is therefore an educational experience where multiple elements come together:
• Its international character, as a space for young people of different nationalities to meet and live together.
• The environmental character as a space for living in nature.
• The community service character that serves the recovery and projection of a region.
In order to provide a permanent space for outdoor activities, over the years Griébal has been completed with several camping areas with fixed infrastructures for water supply, waste disposal and service and dining facilities as well as kitchens.
When the Griébal project began, we found an urban centre in total abandonment and with spaces overgrown by weeds. Throughout the project, a series of improvements have been made to facilitate the participation of more people in the project.
Due to the large influx of children and young people in Griébal, one of the priority actions was the improvement of the accesses; the 3 kilometres of track between the N-260 road and the village have been upgraded, pending the construction of a bridge to cross the river La Nata, whose riverbed must currently be crossed in order to access Griébal.
In addition, due to both the influx of people and the pressing drought in the area, the existing water infrastructures were found to be inadequate, so the water collection, purification and distribution system was updated and adapted, as well as the wastewater treatment system, with further improvements pending in the water supply to the main centres of Griébal.
In 2012, the main roads in the Griébal settlement were adapted to facilitate accessibility to the different facilities in the settlement. This work was carried out by volunteers coordinated at all times by specialised construction technicians.
This project as a whole is inclusive, as it does not discriminate between gender, culture, economics or educational needs. Overcoming prejudices and cultural, gender, sexual orientation, social class or sensory, cognitive or motor diversity discriminations, taking a clear stance against them and promoting equality between social groups is one of its main objectives.
The values that the Griébal project works with involve integration, coeducation and equality between men and women. Similarly, this project is designed to involve people at risk of exclusion and people with disabilities in its activities.
In 1993, the village was given electricity and at the same time, the Griébal project was fully integrated into the life of the region. To this end, for example, the Griébal Festivities were revived, with the participation of its former inhabitants, the village took part in several fairs in Sobrarbe with information stands, and full cooperation was maintained with the Aínsa Town Council.
On numerous occasions, Griébal volunteers have travelled to nearby towns to carry out environmental awareness-raising activities with visitors. The programme of activities carried out is similar to the one that can be found in Griébal itself.
From Griébal we have also participated in meetings of different associations present in the province of Huesca whose common factor is their interest in the environment. Volunteers have carried out environmental activities at the event.
The entire project for the rehabilitation and conservation of the Griébal settlement is carried out by the Griébal Scout Foundation and, therefore, within the framework of the Scout education and method. A fundamentally educational method in which a series of premises such as education in values, education through action and community service are paramount. It is for all these reasons that the Project, from its beginnings, has been conceived not only as a conservation and rehabilitation of an abandoned centre, but also as an educational tool.
The volunteers who come to the centre are from the Autonomous Community of Aragon, from all parts of Spain and even from Europe, with the most participants coming from France, Portugal and Belgium.
Nowadays Griébal is fully and satisfactorily integrated into the life of the region and is recognised and loved by all the inhabitants of the surrounding area. Since 1991 it has belonged to the Town Council of Aínsa-Sobrarbe.
In 1994, the association held a conference with more than 200 participants, from which the main lines of what Griébal should be in the future were clarified. From then on, the participation of young volunteers in masonry work, cleaning, restoration, etc. increased.
As we have indicated above, it is a project initiated and continued by volunteers in its entirety. The parents and educators of the young people also participate in this project, and depending on their personal and professional skills, they take on the jobs that require a higher degree of qualification.
Over the years, the people who come to Griébal to enjoy a few days surrounded by nature have been able to participate in the recovery of Griébal and its surroundings, with each person who passes through the village doing their bit.
Griébal is a very important complement to other existing alternatives in the rehabilitation of uninhabited villages in the Sobrarbe region, because rehabilitation is more than a means, it is an end in itself.
As a fundamental part of active education, we put into practice a methodology that facilitates the acquisition of a series of competences from an early age, mainly favoured by the setting of objectives and goals, the organisation of work and cooperation.
On the other hand, the methodology proposes to develop the concept of service. A service implies bringing together a series of elements and involving several people or instances in order to improve, found or create something lasting. It is deeper, more elaborate and more work, but also much more satisfying and unforgettable when it is well done.
In 1989, Scouts of Aragon began to manage the Griébal settlement in order to rehabilitate it as a service centre and to use its former site for youth group camping.
At that time, Griébal was a group of houses invaded by weeds and with their buildings in a completely uninhabitable state. During the first years, an average of 1,500 young people per year were involved, focusing on the recovery of the urban fabric, the cleaning of the streets, the consolidation of roofs and walls, the replacement of structural elements of the houses, as well as the pruning and cleaning of 100 hectares of forest that had had little human or livestock impact for 30 years.
All the necessary actions were taken to prevent the risk of fire, creating concentric rings of protection around the town centre, reducing the forest mass, installing fire hydrants and installing fire extinguishers in the projection areas. It also created the Griébal Fire Protection Plan, which sets out all the procedures to be carried out if necessary.
It has been more than 30 years since we began to build this dream and today, looking back, we can see the effort, hours of work and travel that have led us to find ourselves with a centre that is a benchmark at European level.
We can say that Griébal is a dream come true.
