• Rural and social stakeholders promote initiatives at the local level that extend throughout the territory.

Entities of all kinds— Rural Development Groups , Professional Agricultural Organizations, Operational Groups, neighborhood associations, unions, and many others—have promoted a solidarity network that has emerged at the local level, with the clear objective of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 in the environment in which they operate. These actions are intended to mitigate the lockdown and also remind the population of the message that they must stay at home.

Love in the time of coronavirus

It's difficult to summarize all the measures implemented in rural areas to reduce the impact of the coronavirus on citizens. They have been, and continue to be, social, economic, and food-related, if we had to classify them into three broad groups.

Some of the first to react were the rural and social agents of the Jerte Valley (Extremadura), who have created an online platform - updated weekly - with the measures in place in the region on SMEs, masks, protocols for cherry picking, employment and accommodation for healthcare and rural workers: Jerte Valley

The Tierra de Campos Collective has tipped the balance between educational and social issues. On the one hand, it lends computers to students who need them so they can continue their school year with virtual classes from home. It has also made a phone number available to those who need to talk during the quarantine because they may feel lonely: 983725000.

Currently, the Adac GAL has sent its members a "business needs sheet" to gather information on the economic impact of COVID-19 in the Alcarria and Campiña regions and with the aim of taking a snapshot that will allow them to anticipate actions for their companies within the LEADER: Adac GAL program .

Virtual forums

On a technological level, La Noria Social Hub has created an app that provides a special service in response to the state of emergency. Through it, residents of the province of Málaga can consult proposed initiatives in response to COVID-19.

El Hueco held a "Rural Hacking" event to find proposals for social recovery in the post-COVID-19 scenario. Three winning proposals were selected, which can be viewed at "Rural Hacking."

In this moment of global reinvention, forums have emerged to discuss and reflect on various rural and social issues in weekly meetings: ERESS "Creating Social Enterprises in Rural Areas"   and SEAE, the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture, are a good example of this.

Agri-food initiatives

The Federation of Rural Women's Associations, Fademur, together with Red Eléctrica de España, are currently donating food from family farms in difficulty due to the quarantine with a dual purpose: to support these farms and prevent food waste: FADEMUR and Red Eléctrica .

The agri-food movement has also organized itself by region to support local supply . Both producers and logistics companies—La Garbancita ecológica or La Exclusiva, for example—deliver food to homes to facilitate local shopping for vulnerable groups and, on the other, to promote local producers. You can consult the mapping of this food network during the lockdown here: Network of Cities for Agroecology

Leisure

A very well-received initiative has been that of the association "A ver Aves" ( A ver Aves ), which uses its blog and Twitter to bring ornithology to all Spanish balconies, encouraging people to watch birds from home and post their photos on its communication platform: Aver Aves. So far, 150 people have identified 111 different bird species using binoculars from windows and balconies in more than 40 locations across Spain.

Remembering their elders, the Extremadura Youth Council has proposed various virtual activities for seniors to occupy their time: games, readings, singing and photography contests... all online!

You can check out all the initiatives of this rural quarantine diary – which are still being collected – on the RRN's communication channels: Twitter and Facebook.