Another similar urban project is N St. Cohousing (http://www.ic.org/directory/n-street-cohousing) in Davis, a college town in California’s Central Valley. Unlike the urban examples described above, N St. neighbors live on all sides of a city block in a shady residential area, and each owns or rents their own house and lot. (While N St. is a cohousing community rather than an ecovillage, I include it because of it has many of the same sustainability aspects as an urban ecovillage.) Even though … Read more
General
La Casa dels Llacs Vivir En Comunidad
¿Te apetece colaborar con nosotros? Somos La Casa dels Llacs, una comunidad basada en la sostenibilidad y el crecimiento personal y espiritual situada en Breda, un pueblecito del Montseny que queda a medio camino entre Barcelona y Girona. Tenemos un huerto y estamos habilitando otro más grande para poder estar auto-abastecidos en este sentido. Además tenemos animales (gallinas, perdices, patos, ocas, dos cabras y dos ponys) y espacios preparados para los niños, ya que uno de nuestros … Read more
The Natural Miracle of Birth-Giving In the Ecovillage Arca Verde, Brazil
Bruna Barella is part of the Ecovillage Arca Verde (Green Ark), since 2005, and in this time she became a mother and midwife. In their rural community, 11 women have gone into labor and 10 babies have been born. Countless female, personal, family and community rebirths have been witnessed at the ecovillage. They consider childbirth to be a natural miracle, a spiritual event that promotes deep healing on all levels. Translated by Cristina Mattos from CASA Brazil. My son was born at home by … Read more
Birth of a New Woman Giving Birth in the Holy Land
Nothing is holy in the Holy Land. Dina Awwad has learnt this early. As a Palestinian woman in the Westbank, she faced the two layers of occupation: from Israel and - as a woman - from the patriarchal society. In the age of 30, she married a Palestinian from Israel, and moved to the other side of the separation wall. With her marriage not fully accepted by the authorities, without permission to work, to drive a car or to study she found herself to be "only" a housewife. However, Dina discovered … Read more
Sieben Linden: Sport is Fun! Fitness and Games for a Healthy and Happy Lifestyle in Ecovillages.
Sieben Linden ecovillage (Germany), can be proud of the number of inhabitants practicing a healthy and active lifestyle, starting with yoga and finishing with barefoot jogging, and hard-core fitness. Yet, there is a great space for improvement in terms of community infrastructure and awareness levels. In this article, Arturs Polis and Nadine Koch are interviewing Nadine Koch, in order to explore the importance of a physically active lifestyle in the ecovillage context, drawing from the … Read more
Putting a Footstep into a New Era. Middle East: Birth-giving in the Global Community
Soraya El Hag from Egypt compares the transition process in the Middle East with the birth-giving of a baby. The principles needed during these, often, painful times of change are the same that are applied in the founding process of an ecovillage. Birth-giving is composed of two words. Birth, which is the time when a baby comes out from the womb of its mother. So, it is the beginning, or origins, of something. Having a series of revolutions in the Middle East that started in the beginning of … Read more
Sound as the Only Midwife Unattended Birth-Giving in the Philipines
Pi Villaraza´s wife, Daniw, performed two unassisted water births in their own home, in the midst of community, without the need of a midwife, a doctor, hospitals and medical apparatus. In their stress-free environment, her only real expenditure for both births was a plastic kiddie pool from Toy Kingdom. In the last four years, Pi and Daniw have also guided extended members of their community to follow a similar process in their own spaces. Pi from the Maia Earth ecovillage in the Philippines … Read more
Pro and Contra Home Birth Kenya: 57 Year Old Woman Quits 35 Year Long Service as TBA (Traditional Birth Attendant) for Skilled Delivery Advocacy.
This newsletter is full of praise for natural birth, outside of hospitals, in the protecting atmosphere of family or community, accompanied by a midwife or doula. However, in Africa, facing HIV and other risks, governments, and NGOs are trying to stop home deliveries by encouraging the Traditional Birth Attendants to quit their work. Victor Odula, program officer of the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), describes the work of Mama Penina, an experienced TBA, and how she was convinced to stop … Read more
Ecovillage Excellency Award, 2014, Goes to Taneeb Farm/Global Campus, Palestine, and Aurora Community, Romania
Since this year the Ecovillage Excellency award is split into a European and an international project, with each of the projects receiving 1500 Euros. The international project will be awarded at the Ecovillage Summit in December, in Senegal, Africa. The audience of the GEN Europe conference this year decided to award the European prize to the Taneeb Farm in Palestine, and Aida Shibli´s initiatives for the Global Campus, Palestine. However, since the fresh and thriving Aurora community in … Read more
Ecovillage Excellency Award, 2014 Aurora Community, Romania
Aurora Community is an intentional, eco-spiritual community and a learning center actively working to be an example on new models of living, sharing the best practices for sustainability, supporting a lifestyle with low impact on the ecosystems of the planet, and spreading a more simple way of living, with grace, beauty and meaning. By Filipa Simoes. … Read more
