GAIA EDUCATION presents the first
ECOVILLAGE DESIGN EDUCATION
TRAINING FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN ITALY
April 2 – 30, 2011
Based on the Gaia Education Ecovillage Design Curriculum, this seminar is an official contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005–2014.
Cher ami, chère amie ,
Dans ces jours Damanhur a ouvert la possibilité, pour tous ceux qui le souhaitent, de devenir des citoyens damanhuriens, même pour une période de temps très courte.
Est-ce que tu aimerais?
Il n'est pas important si tu connais déjà Damanhur ou s'il s'agit de la première fois que tu en entends parler. Nous croyons que le hasard n'existe pas, donc si tu es en train de lire cet écrit, c'est parce que, dans quelque façon, il te concerne, à toi aussi.
Damanhur, qui depuis 35 années est un laboratoire ouvert au futur, est en train de vivre un moment de grande transformation et d'accélération de son processus.
Dans une période de grands changements politiques et sociaux qui touchent le monde entier, nous croyons que la vie communautaire, fondée sur la solidarité et le partage, est un outil puissant pour transformer tout moment difficile dans un chemin d'agrandissement.
Damanhur a un grand projet : à travers les idées et les faits, on veut envoyer un exemple positif, celui d'un nouveau modèle social pour l'humanité pour inverser la tendance au déclin des valeurs de la société actuelle.
Depuis plus de trente années, nous travaillons pour cela.
Currently, 16 Tibetan and Nepalese children have been adopted at a distance by Damanhurians. To be precise, 15 are children have been adopted by citizens of Damanhur, and one by the community of Netila Ra in Florence, Italy.
The adoptions have been active since 2008. The initiative began one year early in May of 2007 on Global Peace Meditation Day, held at Damanhur. A young lama from the Help in Action organization presented the work of this non-profit to help the peoples of Nepal, India and Tibet.
Carl J. Callman, Swedish biologist and university docent, held a public talk at Damanhur on the theme of the Mayan calendar and prophecies for 2012.
Callman has been interested in Mayan culture since 1979, when he went on a long voyage in Mexico and became fascinated with it.
Naturally, the public present at the event was most interested in predictions about 2012.
Callman explained that there all two schools of thought. The first one locates the end of the world at the end of 2012. The second one identifies a crucial moment in the fall of 2011, not as a moment of epic cataclysm, but as one of a change in consciousness toward a more positive dimension, with respect to that which we have been living in until now.
Two Global Ecovillage Network - Europe (GEN Europe) events were held in Damanhur during the month of July. From July 4 - 6, the GEN Europe General Assembly was held, while from July 6 - 10, Damanhur hosted the Ecovillages and Sustainable Living Conference.
The working sessions were held at the nucleo of Tiglio while the sessions open to the public were held at Damanhur Crea. About 200 participants were present from 29 countries. Both European and African organizations were represented, as GEN Europe had previously "hosted" African countries. This General Assembly has been a decisive turning point for the autonomy of GEN Africa. On the international scene in the upcoming years, GEN will be particularly involved with the new African network of ecovillages.
During the Global Ecovillage Network conference at Damanhur, GEN full members voted the Senegal ecovillage movement as recipient of the GEN Excellence Award, an award given annually to acknowledge exceptional work that has been done in emerging ecovillages. The award prize of 3,000 Euro, a donation by Ross and Hildur Jackson - founders of Gaia Trust, shall be used to install potable water in one of the 45 villages of GEN Senegal and to create a start-up fund for the organization of a French-language Ecovillage Design Education training in Senegal for October 2011. Damanhurian artist Ciprea created a piece of artwork, a painting of the GEN butterfly on silk, that was also awarded to the winner.
After a meeting and discussion at the GEN conference held in Damanhur, GEN Europe shall work to propose laws to the European Parliament for the legal recognition of ecovillages and intentional communities. The initiative came about at the end of a work session dedicated to legal considerations, in which Conacreis (National Coordination of Associaions and Communities of Ethical, Inner and Spiritual Research) and Rive (Italian Ecovillage Network) also participated.
During the GEN Europe events, a group of NextGEN youth (the next generation of ecovillages) had a lively discussion about making connections and creative exchanges between youth in ecovillages and communities of the world.
The Global Ecovillage Network Europe's information technology team, Benjamin Flegel and Philip Frank from Sieben Linden and Ralf Krause from Germany are collaborating to redesign and renovate the web resources of GEN Europe.
The team presented a new design for the GEN Europe website during the General Assembly at Damanhur, demonstrating a fresh, streamlined look and new logo in the first phases of developement. An "Open Space" brainstorming session on the new website and internet resources of GEN produced a flurry of ideas, including: a searchable database of skills, products and resources available for exchange amongst ecovillages, information on new communities being founded, an exchange program amongst ecovillage residents, educational information and skill-sharing, and creative works made by GEN members.
GEN General Assembly of members shall be held at Damanhur July 4 - 6, 2010, for decision making, exchange, discussion and being in community.
Ecovillages and Sustainable Living Conference, Damanhur July 6 - 11, 2010: In response to global crisis, this conference points towards solutions for a healthier and more fulfilling life, for us humans and for the planet.
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