On Friday morning, 13^th October, the closing conference of the project was held in the Panorama Pension, together an exhibition of the communities own herbal products. The conference was preceded by a press conference, attended by Gábor Kolumbán –president of the Civitas Foundation, Csaba Hajdó -member of the advisory board, Márton Balog –regional director of the Civitas Foundation from Cluj, Árpád Orbán – ex project manager, and on behalf of this project Géza Lajos Dénes –financial manager and Magdolna Bákai -project manager.

At the event, Árpád Orbán spoke of the beginnings, mentioning the name of program director Mónika Pakot, who had a significant role in the design and writing of the project and Ágnes Bara, who was the manager of the project at the start. He also spoke about how the Transylvanian Herb Garden project fits among the other projects of the Civitas Foundation.

Magdolna Bákai presented the project’s main activities and outcomes, highlighting the role of the Transylvanian Herb Garden Association, which will ensure the sustainability of the project. Mónika Pakot participated in the project as a trainer and she shared her personal experiences with the participants, Márton Balogh presented the Cluj-Napoca team’s part of the project: he was speaking about the formation of the volunteer groups, about the most important activities and outcomes of the project and the direction in which it will continue.

Gabriela Demian from Civitas Cluj-Napoca, who has been a project assistant for some time in the project presented a new project of Civitas Cluj, entitled ’’The Tea Box’’, which received funding under the sub-measure 16.4 of the National Rural Development Program (NRDP).

Gábor Kolumbán was talking about continuation opportunities, presenting a new project idea, developed together with the Swiss partners during a workshop. Afterwards, Éva Blénessy, former community organizer of the project, held a presentation about the role and purpose of the community.

With regard to future plans, it was also said that the continuous training of the members of the association was necessary. Katalin Cseke Árkosi talked about popular medicine, which could become the theme of the training courses held in the future.

After the conference there was an exhibition, where the communities had the chance to introduce themselves. The participants of the project spoke about their own experiences and demonstrated with their varied products, that the acquired knowledge was put in practice.