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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
Strand Report Science and Research in GEN
Even academia is changing slowly towards new paradigms. Ecovillages are increasingly approached as “research objects” often because of their exciting experiments for sustainable living, social and technical innovations. The one year ago started GEN research working group organized three sessions at GEN+20 to first exchange experiences and perspectives on research about ecovillages with the facilitation method of a world café. A general agreement was that we need a forum between academics and … Read more
Netherlands: Village Trade Center
The time of the World Trade Centers is over, we will have Village Trade Centers instead! A Village Trade Center (VTC), is the simple idea of stimulating local production based on the talents of people in the village. This concept was first born in Veerhuis; see the short animation for an overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NptZ5Zg6Eko&feature=youtube We are now in the process of making the VTC a worldwide movement in a open source construction as a creative common. We formulated the 6 … Read more
The Tsunamika Doll: Auroville’s Symbol of Hope for Tsunami Survivors
Auroville, a community in South India aspiring towards human unity, was among the many communities hit by the December 26th, 2004, Indian Ocean Tsunami that was caused by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. From out of the disaster and devastation emerged many projects, bringing community spirit back within Auroville and connecting Auroville to its neighbouring Tamil villages. One of the beautiful stories is one of a little doll named Tsunamika, shared by Kavitha Urvasie Selvaraj. The … 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
Strand Report International and Gender Dialogue
Some of the lessons, energies and experiences of these days begin to settle and find their place in me, so rich and multilayered. I very much appreciate the contact and working together with Visolela Namises, from Namibia, and Alberto Ruz from Mexico, the incredible richness of wisdom and sensitivity of our group and the systemic approach we used to explore the complexity of our collective structures. What touched me most were two things. First, the depth of generational and gender-based … Read more
Online Training GEN International to Learn Sociocracy
On October 20, GEN International will host a 12-week online training in Sociocracy, a governance and decision-making method. The purpose of the course is to train GEN Council members, Steering Group, staff, and Representatives from the five Regions in the basic structures and processes of Sociocracy and how to implement it, and for interested GEN members to become in-house Sociocracy trainers or coaches for their own GEN Regions and national ecovillage networks. The instructor is Diana Leafe … 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
Earthquake in Nepal: What Ecovillagers Can Offer Humanity and the Earth
On 25 April 2015, Nepal experienced the first of its devastating earthquakes which left over 9000 dead and hundreds of thousands of homes and communities destroyed. Chris Gibbings, representative from GENOA from Australia was invited by the ecovillage network in Nepal to come and give a hand. Sunni Dawson reports. Chris arrived before the third (some know it as the second!) major earthquake to hit the country: "It was a scary experience for sure. Seeing the ongoing trauma of people in Nepal, … Read more
Spiritual Disaster Relief Every Full Moon a Disaster Preparation Day
Now that mega natural disasters have been occurring on Earth, what are the things we can do? Yoko Oki & Michiyo Furuhashi share the spirit of Konohana Family, Japan behind their practical workshops on emergency preparation. A seven-year-old girl, Himiko, who was born and has grown up in Konohana Family, Japan worked on the weather observation as her summer vacation homework. One day she said, observing a cloudy weather, “It is human minds that create clouds and the weather! However, people do … Read more
