Education Director
GEN Staff
Starting as a volunteer with GEN, Abbie is now Education Director, where she primarily supports the online learning platform and schools project.
Originally from a tiny island (Bermuda) and currently based in the Netherlands, Abbie considers herself a world citizen as she has lived in many places, including a range of ecovillages and intentional communities. After completing her Masters in Sustainable Development and working with community-focused NGOs, she pursued her passion for education, returning home to launch and run the international environmental education programme, Eco-Schools.
This sparked a further desire to learn hands-on skills which lead her to complete a Permaculture Design Certificate and then onward to adventures in ecovillages. She participated in workshops and conferences and contributed to natural building, gardening, and community engagement projects, some of which she remains involved.
Primary interests: Social (Lifelong Education, Diversity & Cohesion, Trust & Communication, Health & Healing); Culture (Nature Connection); Integral Design (Contextualised Design); Ecology (Seeds, Food & Soil, Green Building, Water Cycles); Economy (Sharing & Collaboration, Planetary Boundaries)
Events & Trainings held by Abbie Caldas
Power of Community Summit – Informal get-together and discussion
- Date: 9 February 2019
- Language:
- English
- Location: The Hague - Please contact the host for exact location, Netherlands
For any participants of the summit interested in sharing the experience with others in the area. This will be a very informal gathering to discuss the topics from the summit in a locally relevant context and brainstorm any potential applications. … Read more
Site content by Abbie Caldas
Blog posts
Hildur Jackson Award Finalists 2022
Once again, we are delighted to honour the very special memory of Hildur Jackson, and to celebrate her legacy by featuring incredible projects around the world, and infusing some resources into some of them. This year's most outstanding project is Kufunda Village in Zimbabwe! Kufunda was founded almost 20 years ago as a place of learning, where people could recover their sense of pride, diversity, and capacity in working with their knowledge to create a healthy and vibrant … Read more
Twinning Regenerative Educators
Since the project launched in January 2022, GEN has facilitated 20 educator collaborators to build a community among them, establish direct twin relationships, and created detailed outlines of three educational resources: a toolkit, teacher training, and ecovillage principles design cards for children. Spanning every region, collaborators bring experience from ecovillage schools, traditional schools, and community projects. GEN is stewarding this enquiry to weave the knowledge and experiences … Read more
Ecovillage & Substack Recommendations Reflections from Nicola (Devi) of Edenhope Nature Preserve, Vanuatu
An ecovillage is a microcosm of creation; for those who live in it and share in its way of life, it becomes a world unto itself, in which the whole order of existence is related from part to whole. By definition, an ecovillage is a group of people committed to living together as a community, relating sustainably with their natural environment. It is by no means a radical proposition, for the concept simply refers to people creating their culture through place — which has been practiced in varied … Read more
Twinning João de Barro: Co-bioconstruindo Succes stories of the Twinning Project
Ecovila Nomade / Instituto Çarakura (Brazil) & Ecovila La Rosina (Spain) With macro goals of enhancing natural buildings on the two properties, it was the underlying goals of ensuring comfortable and welcoming spaces for volunteers and guests that really motivated these two teams from Brazil and Spain. Beyond the physical manifestations, as we’ve witnessed with every other twin project, the collaborative partnership was a highlight, as the twinned participants delighted in the opportunity … Read more
Meet GEN’s new Team Members Thanks to the European Solidarity Corps
For several years, the GEN head office in Findhorn has had the privilege of welcoming a youth perspective from participants from across Europe thanks to the European Solidarity Corps (ESC, previously called European Voluntary Service). Funded by the European Union, it facilitates opportunities for 18 to 30 year olds to contribute to community initiatives while gaining work experience and personal growth. This year, GEN will have the pleasure of working with Karoline, Ann-Chris, Irene, Rubén, … Read more
GEN Research featured in the book ‘Climate Adaptation: Accounts of Resilience, Self-Sufficiency and Systems Change’ The Potential of Ecovillages for Transition in Rural Areas
As part of the GEN Research group, Dr. Rebeca Roysen and Dr. Anne-Kathrin Schwab published an article about the transformative potential of Ecovillages for rural areas in the Climate Adaptation focused book which will be launched at COP26. The book looks at case studies for adaptation around the world and strikes a balance between hope and realism. It doesn't conceal or downplay the truth of the climate crisis, yet it enables hope and power. It also provides a sense of inspiration to make … Read more
Connecting communities and academia for a regenerative world: The EVIST Research Project
Rebeca Roysen is a member of Instituto Biorregional do Cerrado, an ecovillage in Brazil, and also an active member of the GEN Research Group and of the CASA Brasil Research Circle. This year, she was appointed Coordinator of a four-year research project called “Ecovillages as Incubators for Sustainability Transitions” (EVIST), supervised by Prof. Dr. Jens Köhrsen at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The aim of the EVIST Project is to better understand the role ecovillages play in … Read more
Our Annual Report 2020 is here! How the Global Ecovillage Network is catalysing communities for a regenerative world
“This gathering of human and non-human beings has never happened before and will never happen again.” - Charles Eisenstein, GEN Online Summit. As GEN celebrated our 25th year in 2020, and all the contributions that lead us here, no one could imagine the uncertainty the world would face. While gathering the stories and data to showcase our accomplishments for the year, we felt an enhanced sense of gratitude for the abundance within our members and … Read more
A Year After Winning the Hildur Jackson Award Highlights from T.I. Ecovillage in India
In 2020, the Hildur Jackson Award jury welcomed a record number of 70 applications from across the globe. Celebrating their diversity and commitment to the network, we honoured the top 10 projects, communities, and ecovillages, giving special mention to the top 2, and selected one official 'winner' of the Award. We caught up with the winner, one year later to find out how their community has continued to shine, how it may have evolved, and how they've beneffited from being featured. First, a … Read more
GAIA Netherlands will facilitate a blended (online and in person) EDE, Ecovillage Design Education course Bringing together expertise and experiences from successful projects from across the region to help get new projects off the ground.
Living differently, more sustainably, and with more meaning: that is something that more people want. How to achieve this is usually an inner quest, often full of questions, alone or with others. The Ecovillage Design Education course helps to map out these questions and to find appropriate sustainable solutions, facilitated by those who've been on the journey for some time and are passionate about sharing their learnings. With this, you take the first steps to contribute to sustainable, lasting … Read more
