Olaszfa

Our village has around 400 inhabitants and it is situated in a valley surrounded by smaller hills, in a rural area. It is a "dead end" village located farm from bigger towns, the closest city is 20 kms far. The village is located to some 40-45 minutes drive from Austria and also relatively close to the Slovenian border. The population of our village dramatically decreased in the 1960s and later after the fall of the iron curtain, and ageing and depopulation is ongoing. Nearly 40% of the population is more than 60 years old and 15% are not older than 14 years. People - mostly the well-educated - left the village to seek for work opportunities in bigger cities. Despite of the small size and composition of the population, the village has a cohesive community. People regularly organise voluntary community work. 4 NGO's have been established to provide frameworks for bottom-up approaches. The village is fighting to reverse the process through innovative approaches, using the latest technologies, smart devices, and new mindsets. Nowadays, new opportunities emerge for small communities like ours: the transportation behaviours and opportunities changed, IT and technology developed a lot. It's time to change the mind of people, and help them to realise that these goals can be achieved even by a small village with new approaches. Lack of entrepreneurial activity has a great influence on local employment. The limited number of entrepreneurs means economic disadvantage for the village and lack of diversity in local services. Local products, local tourism can be points of growth, but these fields also require entrepreneurial activity and people who can use the natural sources that we have.

Renewable Energy and Digital Cluster member

As a remote village we have to find our own solutions to be almost independent from the big grid. Our vision is to set up energy cluster(s) within the village. Our aim is to use mostly solar energy and in the long term (and with the strong financial support) we would like to use the geothermal energy that is under the village (it was found in the 1960's). In the administration level our aim is to use solar energy in 3 years.

Country

Hungary

Type

not specific

Degree of urbanization

population of 411

This village has no publishable strategy.

Village Solutions

Olaszfa App

The Olaszfa App is a fantastic way to reach the citizens of the village. It provides information about programmes, local events. It includes a calendar for the dates of garbage collection and it send a reminder on the afternoon before. Citizens can notify the local government about issues, they can make complaint and suggestions. There is a built in 'marketplace' where people can 'trade' with their products and/or belongings. It is in a very early stage, more developments are ahead.

Governance | Mobility & connectivity | Services

Contact Information

Szívügyünk Olaszfa Egyesület, info@olaszfa.hu

https://olaszfa.hu/hu/
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