Rural Hackers is based on the power of inspiration. We aim to create a place where you can find people who become your reference for change.

We seek to move towards a more just and equitable society where all people can develop integrally. Our mentors are a fundamental part of this change; they share their expertise to support the realization of our ideas.

Learn here how Rural Hackers works

TECH LEARNING

The learning process is personalized. The participants learn technology according to their level and interests.

MENTORING SUPPORT

Members of the Anceu Coliving community and its partners support the students in their tech and professional development. 

RURAL CHALLENGES

Each participant develops a project to help rural development. 

DO ACTION HACKATHON

We are part of the organization of the first Do Action Hackaton with WordPress to give deserving charitable organizations their online presence. It will take place in Pontevedra as part of the WordPress Camp on Friday, 23rd September. You can already register at this link: HERE.

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Members of the Anceu Coliving community and its partners support the students in their tech and professional development. 

CREATIVE COMMONS

All our materials and methods are based on the Creative Commons license; we love to share and support new initiatives. Creative Commons (CC) is an internationally active non-profit organization that provides free grants for creators to use when making their work available to the public.

What are some activities our international community helped our Rural Hackers students with​

• Video gaming with Jordi Roca

One of our colivers, Jordi Roca, the video game creator of Everhood, shared his inspiring life story of dropping school at 15 years old to pursue his dream as a video game creator. He shared his seven years of trial and error story and what it took him to succeed. The primary purpose for our students was to get inspired by Jordi’s account and also to get to play his game. Therefore, we can say that this day was a total success as, after this moment, our youngsters felt inspired to share their big dreams and not be afraid to dare that high.

• Pottery with Maria

Our interior designer, Dr LivingHome, created one day a pottery workshop where colivers and a couple of interested youngsters could join.

• Painting and drawing with Elizabeth (Zengoala)

One day, our students spent an hour doing Zentangle, a meditative and freestyle drawing – where they enjoyed disconnection from their day-to-day, living a new experience surrounded by nature and beautiful people;

• Robotics with our colivers and students Ivan, Edouard, Agustin, Pablo and Carlos – They run different robotics and technology programs.

For example,  Pablo, Ivan and Carlos are working on the prototype water consumption in small villages; check more here: Rural Makers. Also, Ivan is working on developing an intelligent chicken house using robotics. Also, he works on developing a bright room that controls temperature and humidity levels, where Agustin and Edouard are the mentors helping him with the learning process.

• Life experience exchange with our colivers

In one of our sessions of Rural Hackers, we asked our community if they would like to share their life experiences with our students. We created different groups that sat at other tables, and for about 15-20 minutes, our students would find out more about each of our colivers and ask questions that they would like to find guidance or answer to;

• Gardening with Se – also, when the spring started, we wanted to develop a permaculture garden, where our coliver Se led the entire process of planting a garden with vegetables;
• Journalism with Andreea – in one of the sessions, we organized an interview-journalism action with the students. They were trained to take photos of our mentors/colivers; we’re encouraged to go and ask questions, and later on, our students created digital profiles with their work. This workshop was meant to embrace the fear of going to people and asking questions, as well as becoming friends with our colivers. Besides that, they’ve learned how to edit photos and how to digitalize the information they’ve gathered;

• Cooking together – almost every session, either we were cooking something for our students, or we would buy the ingredients, and then Andreea was teaching them to bake or make pancakes. This activity was meant to bring fun and joy to cooking and to eat together.
• Having fun together – we wanted to transform our coliving not only into a space for learning but also into a space where students could enjoy and feel happy. That’s why, in the last minutes of almost every session, we would sit by the pool, joining them and enjoying themselves at maximum.
• Language exchange – we also did language exchange with our Rural Hackers students and mentors; either we would teach them English or vice-versa, and they would teach our mentors Spanish. At this moment, we had a group of older women that, besides learning how to use technology, in the process, Curro was teaching them basic English. At the same time, Andreea was teaching Ivan English. He is a brilliant young man passionate about coding and robotics, and she is helping him to make his voice known in the English-speaking world.

After reflecting on all the activities we have done in the past months, we feel grateful we can contribute to people’s lives with the things we love doing the most. We almost cannot believe how many things have happened already, and we’re just halfway through this project. 

In the next post, you can learn more about each robotics project we are developing.

If there are any challenges that we can help you with, contact us, and we can discuss more with our Rural Hackers.