With thousands of refugees and migrants arriving on the shores of Europe on a daily basis, the pain and crises in the world are becoming increasingly impossible to ignore, even in those regions which have felt relatively sheltered for a long time. … Read more
Europe
Skala Ecovillage, Greece Greece: Community Building in Times of Crisis
At Skala Ecovillage, a network meeting of grassroot projects from all over Greece brought ideas, actions for change, community building, and hope as Anna Fillipou writes in her moving letter. Dear Friends of Skala Ecovillage, Next Sunday, on 20 September, elections will take place once again in Greece. After Tsipras put Greece in the third international bailout and austerity measures, the political party Syriza has split into two parties. The demands of a radical overhaul of the Greek … Read more
Sweden/Syria: Integration Ecovillage A Solution for Migration and Eco-livelihoods
The Syrian refugee, Fayez Karimeh, arrived last year in Europe. With the help of the GEN network he reached Sweden, where he now plans to build an ecovillage for migrants and refugees (we reported about him here: http://gen.ecovillage.org/en/node/5825 . Due to visa issues he could not attend the GEN summit in person, but was connected with the emerGENcies strand via Skype. Allan Stewart, Treasurer of the new-found association SICE, reports. In the last months around Fayez, a team of … Read more
Disaster Prevention in Europe: Supporting Skala Eco village in Greece to Become a Training Center for Sustainability
The participants of the GEN summit followed with growing indignation the political process around Greece: the European Commission forced new austerity measures on a country whose people are already suffering badly under the economic crisis. (http://gen.ecovillage.org/en/node/5745) A working group was formed and together with the founders of Skala Ecovillage, they planned a first crisis intervention. During a network meeting from August 22 - 30, a group of ecovillage experts from Tamera and ZEGG … Read more
Ecovillages North America: The ABC of a Community’s Garden Orchestra
In the modern world, many people generate music by flicking a switch, pressing a button, turning a dial, or tapping a keypad or touchscreen. And many of us obtain food by swiping a card or lightening a wallet. Others, however, create music by picking up instruments or using their own voices. And some people grow at least a portion of their own food too, participating intimately with its creation in a garden or on a farm. Chris Roth, former gardener and now editor of Communities Magazine, names … Read more
Ecovillages Responding on Crisis What is EmerGENcies Protocol?
The initiative, called the EmerGENcies Protocol, is in its third year of ideation continuing to explore its form. These include members from all regions and the GEN network, blueprint representatives, GAIA Education, and other independent projects unrelated to our networks. The complexity of what is at stake (to design an innovative and holistic response to the growing number of emergency situations), explains the diversity of the projects that make up the EmerGENcies Protocol. Initiator … Read more
New Threats Against the Peace Community San José de Apartadó / Colombia
In 1997, more than 1000 farmers and refugees declared themselves as neutral in the conflict between the Guerilla army and the Paramilitary. They formed the Peace Community, giving themselves guidelines of non-violence and trying to protect each other from being expelled from their remote parishes and farms. In the following years, more than 200 of them were killed brutally in the merciless fights for land, strategic advantage and resources in that region. But still they stayed together and … Read more
Global Campus 2015 in Tamera: On the Way to Form a Global Community
During the GEN summit, GEN International and Global Campus became partners. In this report, Leila Dregger shares about the last Global Campus gathering from July 18th to August 15th, where 30 members and representatives of the base stations of the Global Campus met in Tamera, Portugal, studying and sharing peace knowledge, exploring new skills and experiencing community. While the global crisis threatening their home regions every day remained to be in our focus, they lived in the Solar … Read more
Refugee Aid by Eco Villages – The Journey of a Refugee from Syria, Part 1
Wars, climate change, economic and injustice have made millions of people refugees. Thousands of them die, stranded on the borders of Europe or the United States. Eco villages are, as it has now been said on the GEN summit in Dakar again, especially for young people an alternative to migration. But Eco villages of the North can help directly, can provide a new opportunity to refugees. This is the story of Fayez Karimeh from Syria - similar experiences are currently refugees in various Eco … Read more
GEN +20 Summit Developing the New Story of Community
This year's Global Ecovillage Network Summit at Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, marked the organisation's tremendous growth and development since its emergence 20 years ago. Returning to the place where GEN was launched into the world in 1995, the founders Ross and Hildur Jackson were joined by other GEN legends, Declan Kennedy, Robert Gilman, Jan-Martin Bang and Helena Norberg-Hodge, in bearing witness to how their offspring has now developed contacts with communities on every inhabited … Read more
