OAT Farm Guest House. Tariff

OAT FARM

SECURING A FUTURE FOR DISADVANTAGED YOUTH AT RISK

The OAT (Organic, Agricultural, Training) farm is situated in Suceava District in Northern Romania, close to FARA's childcare programmes and has been running as an ecological farm for four years.

The building of the training centre and workshops at the farm was completed in 2005 and students have been attending courses since early 2006

The primary objective is to enable youth at risk and disadvantaged young people leaving care to gain employment or set up small businesses. With 40% unemployment in rural areas, most young people see little future for them in their communities and plan to leave the countryside or to emigrate. FARA’s response to this problem has been to set up the OAT farm concept to break the cycle of poverty.

The project extends our work with orphaned and abandoned children to provide disadvantaged youth leaving FARA’s care with the opportunity for training in life skills. This will be achieved through workshops, run as business enterprises, and to provide goods and services for the community.

A further aim is to generate funding in Romania for the continued development of FARA’s programmes with disadvantaged children and youth.

A number of agricultural specialists from both Romania and the UK advise and work closely with FARA’s team at the OAT farm.

The project is supported by our Royal Patron, HRH The Prince of Wales who visited the OAT farm in 2003 and laid the foundation stone for the training centre.