On 28 and 29 March, a meeting of international partners of the project “SOFARM – Support of Social and Inclusive Farming” took place in Rožňava, Slovakia, with the aim of gaining and exchanging experience in the field of social farm development.
The first day of the meeting the project partners coordinated the project outputs. In particular, we discussed the final form of the „Condition paper“, which will map the situation of social farms in each participating country and whose finalisation is in charge of the German partner Petrarca e.V. We also planned another output „Case studies“, in charge of the Slovak organization Druživa from Rožňava. The basis of the case studies will be interviews with farmers in each country and the document produced should serve as inspiration for all those who are new to social farms or want to learn how this area is approached elsewhere.
On the second day of the meeting we visited the social farm Oáza in Valaliky – Barca, which is near Košice. It is a place that serves as a refuge for people in need and homeless. With the support of the local pastor and director of this organization, Mr. Peter Gombita, as well as Mrs. Marta, who was our guide, and others, these people work on the local farm. The work in the greenhouses where they grow different types of vegetables serves mainly as a therapeutic tool for them and over time some of them are getting back on their feet.
Representatives of SoFarm and IEPS attended the meeting on behalf of the Czech Republic and together with other project partners had the opportunity to continue to compare the situation and plan further steps that can help social farms to develop further.
