This newsletter will inform you about:
● The idea behind the SHH Project,
● Current progress,
● Future activities and
● The members of our Consortia.
About the project
Sustainability, Heritage, Health (SHH) is an Erasmus Plus project, in key action category “Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices”, in the field of Strategic Partnerships for adult education.
The main goal of this project is to connect European cultural heritage with human and environmental health. The objective of the project is to define walking routes and a recipe book to highlight European culture, promote exercise, mindfulness, nutrition, and work towards sustainability goals. The walking routes, the recipe book and all the activities associated with the project will be put into a mobile application and onto an online platform that people will be able to access from anywhere.
The NHS recommends regular exercise, including at least 150 minutes of moderateintensity activity a week – this project wants to link exercise with cultural exercise and also a healthy diet. Walking is low in terms of the environmental impact of the people who take part in it, as people are spending their time walking rather than other forms of transport, therefore encouraging wider sustainability goals. Walking is also an opportunity to practice mindfulness to foster mental wellbeing. The NHS states that mindfulness can lead to greater mental wellbeing. Walking is considered a form of mindfulness practice. Through the creation of a recipe book and participation in cooking workshops, participants will explore nutrition and sustainable food systems.
Current progress
We are currently finalizing our first 3 Intellectual Outputs and we will soon move on to the 4th, the SHH Handbook. Next stop: Athens, Greece for our final Transnational Project Meeting!
Mobility in Nothern Cantabria, Spain
In October 2022 we had our second mobility, focusing on testing Intellectual Output 2 (the Recipe Book). Our hosts (the Abrazo House team) led workshops about sustainable food systems, took us to a mountain hike and focused on mindfulness and health in general.
LTTA in Spain (Abrazo House)
The experience of tracing the walking routes has been an enlightening one. We have discovered places we never knew about in our own backyard, and found out unexpected facts about our local area. We never knew, for instance, that our own valley (the Aras valley) contains the biggest concentration in Cantabria of native holm oak woodland, a “relict ecosystem” left over from before the last Ice Age! We saw the famous pilgrimage (romeria) that people take to the Sanctuary of the Bien Aparecida each September 15th. We met the founder of an albergue (pilgrim hostel) in Guëmes on the Camino del Norte (Saint James’s Way, northern branch) and heard about his travels around the world in an old Land Rover, which is now the central exhibit in the albergue’s museum. We found inspiring examples of renewable energy, both ancient and modern: we saw a medieval tidal mill in the Marismas de Joyel, and we learned that, as part of the regeneration of the post-industrial island of Zorrotzaurre in the heart of Bilbao, a new project is underway to generate heat for the houses and renovated industrial buildings, now converted to university campuses, using geothermal power.
Planting, gathering and peeling acorns. We then prepared and tasted the nutritious and delicious acorn bread!
Hiking to Faro del Caballo in Santona, after visiting the Wetland Museum
Wild Plants Workshop: how to cook with wild plants and how to prepare a body balm
The local wetland in Colindres, home to many species of flora and fauna
Members of our consortia
