A new chapter is beginning for the large family that two years ago helped kickstart the revival of Fourna in Evrytania. Stefanos and Vasiliki, along with their six children, have decided to move to Naxos, opening a new chapter in their family life but leaving hundreds of other families who shared the same dream disappointed.

“A big thank you. It’s time to close a chapter that was among the hardest, but also among the most important, of our lives. Two years ago we made a big decision. We left behind the life we knew and came to Fourna with faith, dreams, and the hope that we too, in our own way, could give something to this place. We worked, we tried, we grew tired, we put in everything we had and didn’t have, and we built our own little shop, ‘A Little of Everything,'” the family’s mother wrote in a social media post.

Their move at the time inspired other families to follow, turning Fourna into a symbol of rural revival. The family was the first to answer the call for hope issued by the village priest and the village teacher, in an effort to keep the community alive and the school open. The teacher behind that initiative, Panagiota Diamanti, whose efforts had brought the family to the village in the first place, stepped forward to explain to the public what led Stefanos and Vasiliki to make this new decision.

As she noted, their presence had been decisive in giving the local community new life and in getting word of the effort out across the country.

The teacher also underlined the philosophy behind the “New Life in the Village” initiative, making clear that its goal isn’t to trap people in place, but to create genuine opportunities for decentralization through work and housing, so that every family can stand on its own feet and pursue a better future for its children.

“Stefanos and Vasiliki were the first family to take the big step and move to Fourna in Evrytania, opening the way for those who followed. They became part of the local community, supported with their presence an effort that was just getting started, and helped make sure Fourna was heard about across all of Greece, while they themselves were genuinely supported so they could stand on their own feet and spread their wings.

Today, life is leading them to a new destination, Naxos. To Stefanos’s ancestral land, his father’s family, seizing a new family opportunity that came their way. And that is exactly what ‘New Life in the Village’ is about. It plants the seed of decentralization and gives families real opportunities for a fresh start, with work, housing, and support.

It wasn’t created to tie people down to one place. Nor, as some ill wishers claim, does it ‘pay’ or ‘sustain’ families to live in the countryside. Every family works, strives, struggles to give the best to its children. But we never know what life has in store, or what the next opportunity will be that lets our children live in the best way possible.

Along with Stefanos and Vasiliki, five other families have moved to Fourna, two of whom returned not through the New Life in the Village program but on their own, seeing the village coming back to life. Through our initiative, six families have also moved to Zitsa in Ioannina and two to Kokkino in Boeotia, with 80 more families waiting to relocate to the countryside. Stefanos and Vasiliki, thank you for the part of the journey we walked together, and we wish you a heartfelt good start in Naxos, in your new beginning,” she said in the video she posted on social media.

It’s worth noting that the initiative has now grown well beyond its original scope. Besides the five families in total who settled in Fourna, it has already facilitated the relocation of six families to Zitsa in Ioannina and two to Kokkino in Boeotia, with dozens more on the waiting list to make their own move to the countryside.