A European youth exchange project will take place from the 14th to 20th of August 2016 at Jarandilla de la Vera, a village in the mountains of the Extrémadure region. 55 French and Spanish teenagers and 11 accompanying adults will meet together. The MRJC (Mouvement Rural de Jeunesse Chrétienne-The Rural Christian Youth Movement) and Zaragata initiated the project following demand from two groups of 15 to 18 year old youngsters. The MRJC and Zaragata are cultural youth development non-profits. These groups are involved in organising the project. Popular education and active pedagogy will be cornerstone learning techniques used during their stay. These non-profits made contact thanks to the MIJARC (Mouvement International de la Jeunesse Agricole et Rurale Catholique-Catholic International Agricultural and Rural Youth Movement). These partners believe that youth exchanges “favour equity, social cohesion and active citizenship” and “help make learning and international mobility a reality during a whole lifetime”. In view of these observations, the MRJC and Zaragata chose to help these youngsters to make this project possible. It is an opportunity for them to share their views on the realities and challenges of rural Europe and to meet children from another culture. We hope that thanks to this experience, these youngsters will make new local initiatives fir development in rural regions. We have four main objectives for this trip:-Develop intercultural awareness-Discover a rural region and its environment-Emancipation through experimentation and artistic creation-Support youth active participation and development In order to do this, activities will be centred on intercultural exchange through food, music and dancing. The youngsters will also learn more about the challenge of water management in the Extrémadure region by meeting farmers. We will give them the most opportunities as possible to let them organise and carry out activities on their own. This will allow them to gain autonomy.A group of artists will help them set up a show halfway through their stay. The goal is to allow dialogue, cultural exchange and emancipation through art and creativity. The teenagers will choose the topic of the show that could include music, circus art, acting etc. Another objective is to allow the kids to play their shows back home on their own.During their stay, they will have opportunities to have talks and debates about their everyday life, democracy, and youth in both countries. This will be mainly done with pictures and games. The objective of this activity is to point out differences between their two societal systems and talk about their role in democratic debates. They will have the opportunity to understand different point of views and present their own. We expect the participants will gain more confidence and autonomy and learn new craft and social skills (art, manual work, curiosity, tolerance, organisation etc.). It also intended that they will feel more involved in European issues related to youth, democracy and their citizenship. Through this exchange project, the two French and Spanish partners (MRJC and Zaragata) wish to continue and reinforce their actions in supporting youth. We believe that thanks to this they will be the project initiators of tomorrow and that their future acts will have an outreach on European rurality and European citizenship.