A new generation is about to discover the Caminho de Santiago in a different way. Twelve young people will participate in an international volunteer experience on the Portuguese Interior Road, combining walking, path preservation, contact with communities and heritage promotion.
The Caminho de Santiago is hardly traveled. It also needs to be taken care of.
This was one of the central ideas of the first edition of New Footsteps on the Camino, a project promoted by the Portuguese Road Federation of Santiago within the European Solidarity Corps.
For two weeks, 12 young people travel through different territories between Viseu and Vila Pouca de Aguiar, participating in activities related to the conservation and valorization of the Road, or contact with the populations and promotion of sustainable Portuguese Jacobean itineraries.
More than 800 applications
Two young Europeans responded to their own organization.
Second to the Federação Portuguesa do Caminho de Santiago, the project received more than 800 applications from young people from various European countries. For this first experience, 12 participants were selected for group volunteering, as well as four young people for individual volunteering experiences.
The objective is very much besides providing a walk to Santiago.
The initiative seeks to involve new generations in preservation, valorization and sustainable promotion of the roads of Santiago in Portugal, simultaneously bringing the participants together from small communities and two territories crossed by different routes.
Work in the shelters and know that people live next to the Caminho
A passagem by Vila Pouca de Aguiar Show this philosophy.
The young people will participate in the most beautiful events of the hostels, produce multimedia content and contact directly with local inhabitants and producers. The intention was to allow the territory to be known not only through the landscape, but also its people, traditions, resources and products.
On other parts of the Interior Road, the group participated in waste collection and did not contact local communities. The program includes tasks related to maintenance, identification, identification of needs and protection of natural and cultural heritage.
A path that requires new generations
There is another especially interesting element in this experience: The generational renewal of the Jacobean universe.
A large part of the future of the Caminhos will depend on the capacity of the associations, municipalities and entities responsible for transmitting to the youngest people that the Caminho is not just a tourist product.
It is heritage, territory, culture, nature and a hospitality network built over generations.
Projects like this allow young people from different countries to discover that reality by working directly on the ground.
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The experience ended in Santiago de Compostela
The confinement took place at the Welcome Center of Pedras Salgadas, on July 30, bringing together participants and representatives of the entities involved.
Depois chegou um last especially symbolic moment: A joint trip to Santiago de Compostela, supported by Xacobeo SA and the European Federation of Caminho de Santiago.
This first experience should not stop here.
The Portuguese Road Federation of Santiago has announced that New Footsteps on the Camino will have new editions in the coming years, trying to continue bringing the young people closer to the paths and communities that give them life.
Because perhaps this is also one of the best ways to guarantee the future of the Road:
Don't just walk around with it, but learn to take care of it.
Boom Caminho!
