A radical change: from Terrassa to an Alt Urgell town with 24 inhabitants

T.g.
2 min
L’Imma i el Jaume amb els seus fills, l’Aniol i l’Aran, a casa seva a Ossera.

BarcelonaOne of the Repoblem (Let's repopulate) appeals that has had the most success on the networks was that of the town of Tuixent. In a tweet of September 7, Ton Lloret said that this town in Alt Urgell was looking for new inhabitants. The details of the offer were that the town has 2 population nucleus, houses for sale and rent, rural 4G internet, a doctor's office and a primary school. The avalanche of responses he received left Ton Lloret very surprised. "It was the most successful appeal because it had very attractive elements”. The reality, however, was more complicated and the accommodation offer was difficult to specify.

Finally, on December 19, Imma Ferrer and her family - her husband, Jaume, and their children, Aniol and Aran -, who lived in Terrassa, settled in Ossera, a small town that belongs to the municipality of La Vansa i Fórnols with 24 inhabitants, next to Tuixent. They have been received with open arms, since this repopulation means, among other things, that the rural school of the town will have 10 students.

Imma values this first month at Ossera "in a fantastic way". She recognizes that the decision to make this radical change was largely due to the pandemic. "We would not have taken this step if it had not been for the lockdown. It was a revolutionary and definitive experience because being locked in our apartment in Terrassa made us change our perspective a lot and realize many things that we missed". Therefore, when they saw the tweet with Tuixent's offer, they signed up. "Jaume and I work at the UOC and in March we started teleworking, but over the past months we have seen that it is a way of working that has come to stay", she says. They discussed it with their bosses, who "made things easy" for them, and decided to take the step.

For them, however, one of the most important things was her children's well-being. "We wanted to come one day to see the town and spend a morning at school, to see what it was like and how they felt". The children were delighted with the experience: "they were all morning outdoors, surrounded by nature, they were amazed", and then they made the decision. Some residents of the area grouped in the Reviure les Valls association have helped them with the search for housing, which was the most complicated thing. "In the end they offered us this house in Ossera that we really liked", Imma explains.

She says the motivation for making this change comes from "trying to make our life more enjoyable." It's as simple as that. And although they must drive an hour to La Seu d'Urgell to go shopping, that doesn't stop them. "We have had to make many changes in our family logistics, but in the villages you reconcile with another way of living. In the city I had the feeling that we were clients of the services they gave us, here there is a more cooperative way of life, in community, which we like a lot". They do not consider themselves especially brave, but she does admit that they want to do their bit to change the country’s balance, and make it more diverse.

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