GEN-europe: Latest News

Spirit of Asia: NextGEN in GENOA (GEN Oceania and Asia) gaining momentum

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:54:00 +0100

NextGEN Japan expresses the vision of the youth
Two years ago, in March 2011, a tsunami led to the nuclear disaster of Fukushima. It was a wake-up call for the whole world to find ways of life that lead to harmony with nature rather than to disasters.
One of the leading places for alternative lifestyle in Japan is the Konohana Family, a highly self-sufficient Ecovillage. Konohana hosted the “Youth Vision Summit”, organized by NextGEN Japan in May 2012, where young people gathered to discuss and share visions for an ideal future.
Different events organized at the summit shared with visitors the Ecovillage values that are practised in the Konohana family.
NextGEN Japan plans to organize “Vision Summits” several times a year and spread information about Ecovillage values and concepts. NextGEN Thailand
NextGEN Thailand has organized a campaign to raise awareness on Climate Change in schools in NongKhai province from January – March 2013. They have formed NextGEN groups in Schools and are collaborating with schools in providing education for sustainability for students.
The NextGEN Empowerment Programme aims to empower the youth by encouraging them to realize their strength, beauty and intrinsic value as human beings. It includes education for basic understanding on the 4 keys: Social, Worldview, Economic and Ecology (Permaculture) as an introduction to the Ecovillage Design Education.
A three day NextGEN Empowerment workshop will be conducted in Chiangmai Province, northern Thailand, in April 2013, for 20 village youth. NextGEN members will provide a follow-up programme and support for the youth following the workshop, in collaboration with their local elders. More. NextGEN Australia is preparing to provide a network for the younger generations who are living or want to live within Ecovillage! Shane Schmidt, the current representative, is passionate about the Ecovillage movement in Australia and has experienced many communities internationally and within his country. NextGEN Bangladesh is coming!
On 13th-14th December, 2012, at the Bangladesh Association for Sustainable Development training centre in north Banishanta, 34 youth participated in a NextGEN Empowerment Workshop, to raise awareness for the NextGEN movement in Bangladesh. The participants went through 7 steps including the introduction of NextGEN and community building among youth, gratitude, appreciation and positivity. The youth were guided to look positively upon themselves, their village or town, their country, and the planet, in order to build a sense of gratitude and appreciation.
At the same time, they were encouraged to share the concerns that they have for their village, country and the Earth, and guided to envision their village as an ecovillage.
This was followed by developing action plans, networking and widening the networking movement.
At the end of the workshop the youth formed 4 smaller groups, made up of participants that come from the same village, in order to present their action plans that they are strongly committed to. They also have a plan to organize and manage the network among themselves, and proposed a representative to join NextGEN GENOA network. NextGEN Sri Lanka is a wide opportunity!
NextGEN Sri Lanka is a new member of NextGEN GENOA but is already becoming very active. In 2013, NextGEN Sri Lanka intends to strengthen the network through a process of designing strategies and activities to further encourage the movement.
In order to nurture the NextGEN movement, collaboration and networking with grassroots organisations in Sri Lanka, whose work is concerned young generation issues, is really important. There are a few exciting initiatives being coordinated by NextGen Sri Lanka for 2013, that will engage youth and support them to be stewards of the Earth. Another Activity: Paapedi 2013 – A bicycle journey for climate justice
From 13 – 24th March 2013, a group of Sri Lankan youth, environmental activists and international volunteers will cycle from one of the ancient capitals in Sri Lanka, Anuradhapura, to the country’s capital, Colombo, over a 10-day journey. The bicycle journey, organized by a small grassroots organization, Eco-V, aims to build a sense of pride and responsibility for this sensitive island and further the process of empowering young people as social and environmental actors. The journey will demonstrate how the bicycle can be a positive and powerful force of social change in this age of fast-paced, consumer driven life. NextGEN Ladakh is exciting
The "Socially Engaged Buddhists of Ladakh" (SEBoL), a youth led organization, showed their interest in the NextGEN movement in Asia. They are motivated and full of energy and determination to empower young Ladakhis to strengthen their connections with their cultural roots, wisdom and spirituality, while taking responsibility for their society and the ecological balance. They have a close relationship with NextGEN Thailand and are planning collaborative activities in Ladakh. Spirit of Asia
NextGEN GENOA is planning their first regional project called Spirit of Asia. By observing that Asian youth are disconnecting from their roots of culture, wisdom and spirituality, NextGEN GENOA is organizing this project as a continental campaign towards valuing diversity of local wisdom, spirituality and sustainable lifestyles.
Spirit of Asia strongly envisions the cultural revival and empowerment of the connection between youth with their cultural roots, spirituality, local wisdom, their wise elders, and nature. For, when the youth connect with their roots they realize who they are, what their values are and where their spirits are.
Spirit of Asia plans a journey from Sri Lanka through India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
On their journey, they intend to interact with local youth groups in each country on their route, in order to acknowledge their local wisdom and culture.
They will discuss the threads coming into the local communities and share visions for the future with the local groups. Together with the local youth groups, they intend to engage with, and learn from, the elders in the communities to learn the Asian wisdom and Asian spirit.
They will listen and hear from the elders the knowledge of what is life, what is the spirit of Asia, and what is going on in the world from the elders’ perspectives, and the wisdom they have to share with the younger generations.
NextGEN GENOA will take action to serve the community and exchange their local wisdom and culture with the communities through music, dance, songs, storytelling, etc. The Spirit of Asia project is in the process of planning and preparation. The story of this journey will surely be shared along the way. More information: Narumon Paiboonsittikun ecodeva@gmail.com

Invitation to join the TERRA NOVA SCHOOL

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:54:00 +0100

At the heart of the school are the development of global consciousness, the insight into coming healing processes and the implementation of real-life models for future life. Main learning subjects are:

- Concrete Utopia: Ecological and technological solutions for self-sufficiency and the healing of water, nonviolent cooperation with animals and decentralized energy supply.

- Healing of love: Building functioning communities of trust, a new image of love, Eros and healing, a free raising of children, a new field of female power.

- Theory of global revolution: The science of transformation. Why a few groups can change the world.

How to participate?

The Terra Nova School consists of groups worldwide which continuously study new thoughts and pass them on to friends, neighbors and interested people, at conferences, festivals, in communities and networks, as this helps building a new information field on Earth.

Martin Winiecki, 23, coordinator of the Terra Nova school: "We envision the groups in the different cities and countries as "revolutionary cells" dedicated to Terra Nova, places such as a simple book store or cafe, a cultural center, a community, a farm with "water retention landscape", a model university or an entire Healing Biotope. In the different cities regular political evenings, readings, film screenings, art actions, etc. may take place to strengthen the spirit and joy of Concrete Utopia. We manifest the new Earth the more we can see its vision and talk about. And the deeper we can do that the stronger our power will be. This is how you will become attraction points for the revolutionary powers, many more will come and want to participate."

The team has set up a basic curriculum for the first year. Each month will be dedicated to an essential issue in the form of an education package with study texts, further literature as well as videos or speeches. We recommend you to form groups and meet for a common study time once a week to actively work with this material. To deepen the issues, we will set up live-streams of lectures from the Tamera University in the second half of the months. Depending on your questions, we will be happy to set up colloquies with the authors and teachers.

During the first year, till May 2014, we want to gather all the relevant and accessible material for Terra Nova for a comprehensive curriculum, that could eventually evolve into an "Education Manual for Peace Workers." We invite your collaboration and contributions.

Laura Czajkowski, co-founder of the Terra Nova School: "Imagine! The same thoughts and visions for a new Earth will be studied worldwide - from Dharamsala in India to La Paz in Bolivia. We all share the same issues, the same goals, the same questions. The single groups and projects no longer work alone, but are part of a newly emerging planetary community. In this planetary spirit the powers multiply that we need to do our work."

Martin: "We want to connect the various groups and stations with each other. That's why we invite all activists of the global school to meet at least once a year, temporarily in Tamera and later also in other places around the world. As meeting point this year we suggest our International Summer University in Tamera (1st - 10th August 2013, followed by a one-month basic education). We also will celebrate common actions days as the Global Grace Day on 9th November where one can take a stand for a future without war."

The young international team in Tamera will continuously accompany the emergence of the school and the various groups involved, with contact persons for the different regions of the Earth. They will be in touch with the participants regularly, support their process and exchange information.

The participation is for free. To cover the costs for our work, as well as for translations, travels and other expenses, we ask everyone one who is able for a monthly donation.:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=R3NJY2SGYRKAA

Please write to: igp (at) tamera (dot) org

Why Earthaven Ecovillage, USA, Changed Its Decision-Making Method

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:09:00 +0100

“Consensus . . . allows each person complete power over the group.” Caroline Estes, Communities Directory (FIC, 1991, 1995) Because increasing numbers of members over the last several years have been dissatisfied with our consensus decision-making method, in October, 2012 Earthaven Ecovillage, based in North Carolina the US, agreed to modify its consensus process. For 18 years we used consensus-with-unanimity, which requires 100 percent agreement (not counting stand-asides) to pass a proposal. We found that by using the consensus process, we had no recourse if someone blocked a decision; no criteria for what constituted a valid block against which blocks could be tested; nor a requirement that blockers meet with proposal advocates to draft a new proposal to replace the blocked one. The main concern of many Earthaven members was the power of individual community members to block decisions. The consensus-with-unanimity process meant that anyone could block any proposal for any reason, and thus effectively stop ideas or projects that most other members wanted. So I began to research what experienced community-based consensus trainers are currently advocating, and any alternate decision-making methods used by other communities. I wrote a series of articles about the topic in Communities magazine in 2012, “Busting the Myth that Consensus-with-Unanimity Is Good for Communities.” Several other community-based consensus trainers also wrote articles. What Community-Based Consensus Trainers Say:
“Blocking potentially gives tremendous power to one or a few individuals, and the only way for that to function successfully is with a check and balance,” advises US community-based consensus trainer Tree Bressen (Communities, Summer, 2012), former member of Acorn Community in Virginia. “ . . . in order for consensus to function well there must be a robust response to bad blocks.” She and other community-based consensus trainers advocate a limited number of blocks in one’s lifetime.
US community-based consensus trainer Caroline Estes, who lives at Alpha Farm Community in Oregon in the US, recommends only three to four blocks in a lifetime. She says that in her 50+ years of facilitating she has seen legitimate blocks less than a dozen times.
Consensus trainer Bea Briggs, who lives at Huehuecoyotl Ecovillage near Teplotzlan, Mexico, and author of 'Introduction to Consensus', recommends only three to six blocks in a lifetime. She says that in her 20-plus years of facilitating she has seen only one legitimate block. “I understand your concerns about consensus and appreciate the on-going discussion,” Bea shared with me an email. “I also no longer am a ‘consensus evangelist,’ for many of the reasons you mention in your articles,” she added.
Tree Bressen suggests community members remind each other, “If you’ve blocked consensus half a dozen times for all the groups you’ve been a member of, you’ve used up your lifetime quota,” (Communities, Fall, 2012 issue). “In my experience,” she adds, “every successful consensus system . . . restricts blocking power in order to guard against tyranny of the minority.”
“Our meetings are a dysfunctional nightmare,” said Cecil, a member of another North Carolina community, in Letter to the Editor in Communities magazine (Fall 2012) responding to the above article series. “Founded in love, trust, and generosity . . . we now have paranoia, suspicion, and fear, thanks to what I had also begun calling ‘dictatorship of the minority’,” Cecil wrote.
Members of Kommune Niederkaufungen near Kassel, Germany wrote an article about their new decision-making process. “Two problems became visible during our 25 years of using consensus. When no consensus could be reached . . . one person, through the veto, was given power over the whole group. . . . (Therefore) some individuals withdrew from the decision-making process.” The concerns of Cecil’s community and Kommune Niederkaufungen about consensus were similar to concerns expressed by many Earthaven members too. Other Ecovillages’ “Check and Balance” Decision-Making Methods:
In order to create checks and balances to counter the effect of “complete power over the group,” a several other ecovillages changed their decision-making methods. Some of their methods have influenced Earthaven’s new process too. In 2011, ZEGG Community in Belzig, Germany and Schönwasser Ecovillage in Zurndorf, Austria each switched from consensus to Holacracy. Schönwasser also uses Systemic Consensus, a mathematical measuring method developed in Austria. (Description of Systemic Consensus http://www.ecovillagenewsletter.org/wiki/index.php/Systemic_Consensus_%E...). In 2011 Lost Valley Educational Center/Meadowsong Ecovillage in Oregon in the US changed from consensus to Sociocracy. Dancing Rabbit, an ecovillage in Missouri in the US is in the process of shifting from consensus to an eight-person "Town Council "model. The elected eight people will decide things instead of the whole group. N St. Cohousing in California in the US uses what I call the “N St. Consensus Method,” in which blockers meet with advocates of the blocked proposal in a series of solution-oriented meetings in order to co-create a new proposal. If they cannot, the old proposal comes back for a 75 percent super-majority vote. Sieben Linden Ecovillage in Poppau, Germany changed from three decision options in consensus: (1. Approve the proposal, 2. Stand aside, 3. Block the proposal) to four options: (1. Approve, 2. Abstain/don't know, 3. Stand aside, 4. Block). In order to pass a proposal 75 percent of the meeting participants must choose “approve.” If fewer participants choose “approve”, the proposal doesn’t pass.
Sieben Linden members also choose each member of their five committees through a nominations ballot listing every community member. Members who receive the highest number of nominations for each committee serve on that committee (with their agreement). Kommune Niederkaufungen, mentioned above, switched from traditional consensus to a modification very much like the N St. Consensus Method, with blockers and proposal advocates holding a series of solution-oriented meetings to create a new proposal. (Description of Kommune Niederkaufungen’s new process http://www.ecovillagenewsletter.org/wiki/index.php/Kommune_Niederkaufung... ) L'Arche de Saint Antoine, a spiritual community near Valance in France, uses consensus with three different decision-rules (the percentage of agreement needed to pass a proposal) for different kinds of decisions:
(1) Decisions in community-wide business meetings — 75 percent supermajority vote.
(2) Decisions in committees — 66 percent supermajority vote
(3) To approve potential provisional members and approve new full members, elect their director, and change their ByLaws — 100 percent consensus. Earthaven’s new process has similar elements to Lost Valley’s, N Street’s, and L’Arche de Saint Antoine’s methods, each of which creates more “check and balance” in their process. Earthaven’s New “ Check and Balance” Decision-Making Method
Here’s how Earthaven’s new method works:
(1) To approve incoming new members we retained our previous consensus method of consensus-with-unanimity
(2) For all other proposals except the annual election of offers (see below) we added criteria for a valid block and a way to test blocks against that criteria (i.e., a block is declared invalid if 85 percent of Council members present say it’s invalid).
For any remaining blocks that have been declared valid, we use an adaptation of the N St. Consensus Method, in which blockers and several proposal advocates participate in up to three solution-oriented meetings to co-create a new proposal that addresses the same issues as the first proposal. If they cannot, the original proposal comes back to the next Council for a decision using consensus-minus-one (meaning it takes two blocks, not one, to stop the proposal).
The new method is the kind of consensus process advocated by various community-based consensus trainers, including Laird Schaub of Sandhill Farm community in Missouri in the U.S. “There should be a best for validating a block — to see whether it meets the standard (that the group has established ahead of time) for what are legitimate grounds for a block. If the block fails the test, then the group can invalidate it,” he advises. (Communities magazine, Summer, 2012).
(3) To choose officers in our annual meeting, we’re experimenting for a year with a technique from Sociocracy. This includes a series of 'go-rounds' to nominate and choose people for our four officer roles. We used this method successfully in annual officer elections in November and December, 2012.
I facilitated the Council meeting in December, where we used this new process for the election of our last two officers. Many participants were anxious at the beginning; in previous years these elections had been characterized by high conflict and low morale. However, the meeting went very well.
Each person around the circle described how the skills, experience and relevant qualities of the person they nominated qualified that person for the officer role. In subsequent go-rounds people asked questions of the candidates with potential solutions for various people’s concerns built into the questions. Hearing all these solutions and getting a sense of what the most number of people most wanted regarding electing each our four officers seemed to generate a sense of confidence and good will. You could practically see the energy of relief fill the room. People seemed to feel good about the election process, each other, and our new officer-election process. Things at Earthaven are looking up! Diana Leafe Christian is author of "Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" (published also in French, Spanish, Italian, and Russian), and "Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community". She publishes Ecovillages newsletter (http://EcovillageNews.org).
An EDE trainer, Diana contributed chapters to the Gaia Education books "Beyond You and Me: Inspirations and Wisdom for Building Community", and "Gaian Economics: Living Well Within Planetary Limits" (Permanent Publications, UK, 2007 and 2011).
She is also a GEN-Europe Ambassador and a representative from the eastern US to the Ecovillage Network of the Americas (ENA). Diana speaks at conferences, engages in consultations, and is an international workshop leader on starting successful new ecovillages and other kinds of intentional communities, and on Sociocracy, a self-governance and decision-making method. She lives at Earthaven Ecovillage in the US (http://www.DianaLeafeChristian.org).

Community Experiment in Israel and Palestine

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:10:00 +0100

The Peace Research Village Middle East team (PRV-ME) started a community experiment in March, in which the project invites friends and supporters to live and work together toward the manifestation of the Village. During March the group was volunteering in the kibbutz, Neot Semadar, in the Negev, deepening the contact between communities and checking possibilities for future cooperation. In April the group will be living, working, and learning Arabic in Eilaboun, in the Galilee. In May the core group will travel to Tamera to attend the Global Love School with Sabine Lichtenfelds. In the beginning of June the PRV-ME will start six months of a Community Experiment in which the group will grow from seven to twenty people. This time will include participation as a core group in all aspects of life, working together in different mixed teams: fundraising, PR and networking, house-holding, gardening, doing a water project, and nourishing our spirits, minds, and hearts as a community. It will include participation in internal study time, forums, art times, language lessons, intensive courses like Love School, and group journeys to cooperative partners and other communities. It will run from June until the end of November 2013, and will include preparation and participation in an international event (i.e. pilgrimage or music) planned for this Autumn. The community experiment is open for friends of the project who are familiar already with the group and with the vision of the PRV-ME and who would like to support the manifestation of it. Potential participants are asked to apply by sending an application letter stating their motivations and intentions on professional and ordinary levels, noting possible challenges as a participant of the experiment.
For more information please contact: info@prvme.org. More information: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PRV-ME/126236127495399

Community Convergence for the Fast Growing Ecovillage Movement in Romania

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:18:00 +0100

Many new communities are being founded in Romania, and a growing number of people are intending to make the transition to a more harmonious life. People are eager to shift to a more loving lifestyle and so the grinding work of building coherence and trust in groups and networks is being sustained.
Romania is a country with diverse and many still untouched habitats, where one can find all the glitter and glory of ''modern development'' close to villages where people practice local forms of subsistence agriculture. The country still bares the scars of 45 years of communism, and the social and environmental decay that it produced. And yet, a traveler will be delighted to discover in many regions, traditional communities where true values are cherished and the sacredness of life is recognized.
For a country where half of the population lives in rural areas and where close to 2 million people still struggle below the poverty line, many embrace consumerism whole-heartedly and the pursuit of comfort without consideration.
Our country is, by inheritance, one of village communities and of self-sustaining peasant farmers. Our culture, art and history are deeply connected with the wilderness and the spirit and beauty of nature, and in spite of the mass alienation towards its own identity, there is still much of that spirit alive today.
We intend to assist the rejuvenation of that spirit, and share with the world a feast of the living fairytales and tomes of the grandmothers' knowledge that are still preserved. The broad region to which this convergence is primarily addressed - Central and Eastern Europe: the Danube Basin across the Balkans and Carpathian mountain ranges and the area between the Baltic and Mediterranean seas - holds very important treasures in the forms of vestiges of pristine wilderness and traditional sustainable human culture.
The sprouting community movement here needs the support of practical community building experience and social tools. There is much to share and learn and we believe that a healthy vibrant community network here would create an amazing symbiosis with the community movement that is already well established in Central and Western Europe. It will also physically enable the bonding with initiatives in Asia and the Middle East.
With this vision we are organising a 6 day long Community Convergence in June that will be hosted in the Aurora community in the Transylvania region of Romania. It will be an intensive work time for those dedicated to, or aspiring to be part of, the global community of communities. For our steering group, it will be the first of the community convergence events that we also plan to start organizing in other parts of the world.
The vision for the first Community Convergence (as inspired by Berkana Institute’s “3 stages of emergence”), is to create fertile space for the birth of new intentional communities of practice that can take social innovation to scale, and assist the emergence of bio-regional and global systems of trust and influence.
We plan to do this by connecting like minded people and networks across distance, generations, and styles, creating opportunities for learning, experiencing and sharing, as well as developing synergies between communities and projects.
We wish to extend the invitation to representatives of the larger European communities such as Tamera, Sieben Linden, and Findhorn, as well as representatives from GEN.
We hope to see, as a result of this gathering, new community groups forming, existing ones blossoming and the web of communities becoming more intricate.
The event has an international focus and the main language will be English, although Romanian will be an integral part. Meals will be vegetarian. Children are welcome. Drugs, alcohol and meat are not welcome on the community grounds.
Celebration will be certainly a part of the event but it is clearly not a festival or any kind of party.
Holistic values such as the love for all Life, inclusivity, honesty, solidarity, openness, diversity, friendship and respect are essential for healthy participation. The Community Convergence will take place in June 2013 at Aurora intentional community in Southwest Transylvania, the exact dates to be announced soon.
Accommodation will most likely be in personal tents. Exact details about the agenda and travel information will be communicated soon with the launch the official announcement of the event. The event will be a free economy experiment and will function on the principle of the gift economy. Depending on the outcome, resources will be shared among the steering group and core group members according to needs and inputs. We are open for interested people to take part in the co-creation of this convergence. Those participating in the organization are also invited to participate in the physical preparation of the space before the event. This stage will also contain a community building process for the organizing group. Otherwise most of the preparatory work will be conducted via the internet and using project management platforms to coordinate tasks. Steering group: Gabriela Dragomir, Fabian Lechner, Claudian Dobos, Andrei Iuroaia
Andrei´s Telephone: +40 0742.990.175
iuroaia.andrei@yahoo.com
www.communitiesconvergence.com
Ecosofie: www.eco-sofie.eu

South Siberia calling for young people

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:03:00 +0100

We are working on our project "Children of Taiga". It takes place in South Siberia on a big lake in the East Sayan Mountains (Lake Tiberkul) and the largest forest on Earth. We engage for a more natural way of living, protection of wilderness areas and cooperating with communities. With this project we open a space especially for international (young) people to live and work in community and get nature/wilderness experiences and a deeper feeling for ecology.

The project is located nearby the biggest Russian community but it's even though self standing and cooperating with different community projects in several countries. We are in the beginner phase, live in yurts and tents and do projects with volunteers from different countries. We realize youth projects with the locals and try different forms of ecological building. The next aims are building more yurts and involve young people from different countries, develop a Permaculture project, in summer a project with disabled youngsters and a Vision quest.

We invite people with ideas, hand and passion to work with us in the project. You should like wilderness and know to use canoes, mountain bikes, skies, snowshoes and be able to use your feet and hands.

If you are keen for Siberian youth community and wilderness experience contact us gruenergrashalm@t-online.de or check www.go-outdoor.de

We speak German, English, Russian, Turkish and Czech.

'Meaningful Conversation' – International workshop held in Sieben Linden

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:36:00 +0100

The workshop, held by Martin Stengel and Kosha Joubert, provided a deeper understanding of the nature of human communication, and of typical patterns in conversation. Relating to different exemplary situations according to the participants' personal experience skills for building bridges and creating meaningful conversation were presented and intensively practised. The participants learnt more about themselves by exploring into their voice, body language, and presence when communicating. They learnt to stand and speak up in front of small groups with an awareness of the inner state of being and of the connection to the audience. A lesson on the inner critique told how to coach and support oneself in order to get rid of dis empowering patterns. We learnt how to listen deeply, and how to give and receive feedback. We learnt about modern tools for conflict-resolution and non-violent- communication. We learnt how to mutually support each other with simple coaching techniques. The course inquired into the principles of collective wisdom and stupidity. Collective creativity in connection with active citizenship was experienced in experiential sessions on world café and on open space. The workshop design created a vibrant learning community meeting in a constructive and focussed as well as playful and relaxing atmosphere. Additional inspiration was provided by the living and learning centre of the self-organized ecovillage of Sieben Linden. 23 people from 11 countries participated and met in an atmosphere of inter cultural appreciation and respect, and broadened their understanding of a European and global humanity. The workshop had been funded by the Grundtvig Longlife Learning Programme of the EU.

Earth Day - Ecovillage Day 2013

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:12:00 +0000

This year, we invite you to join us again by inviting your neighbours to visit your ecovillage...

10 ecovillages in 10 years in Norway

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 08:45:00 +0000

In the autumn 2012 Ross and I were invited to Norway to speak one day at a meeting: 10 ecovillages in 10 years, and Ross the next day about Occupy World Street, his new book about a new world order. I persuaded Ross to go some days early to see a bit of mountain and also some ecovillages. We stayed with Frederica Miller, Gaia Architect and permaculture designer.

Hurdal Ecovillage

Driving off the Oslo boat in the morning, we called Hurdal ecovillage and were received a few hours later in beautiful autumn sunshine one hour north of Oslo and not far from Gardermoen airport. They have all the land that belonged to the local church stretching from the sandy beach over meadows and fields passing the church into more rocky areas with a view over Lake Hurdal. We met with Kristin and a small group who invited us for coffee and a talk. The ecovillage has been 10 years underway with many people coming and going. The “fire souls” all these years have been Simen Torp (who went to Findhorn when he was 16), his wife Kristin and their now 3 children. During the last year they have developed a “breathing house” in wood with Gaia architect Rolf Jacobsen and entered into a cooperative venture with local entrepreneur Pål Lund-Roland who will build the first cluster of houses this spring as people buy them. A beautiful brochure tells the full background of how they intend the ecovillage to unfold, and shows the 6 versions of the house, varying from a big family home 153 m2 to small single person homes of 30 m2. The first cluster of 49 houses includes a common house and a business building. Two other clusters will be built later. Various activities are planned around the farm and they are looking for a farmer.

When we were there they expected to buy a local school with a very good site overlooking the lake with many square meters for businesses and education purposes. I called later and they did get it at a quite reasonable price.

Years of planning has now resulted in a very attractive design with a great many possibilities. And a way of organising the building process so they can have really solid houses very quickly. Now they need a dedicated group to unfold the many possibilities. In the summer of 2013 they will host the first Norwegian EDE. Simen Torp together with Pål Lund-Roland have the goal of repeating this same organizational and financial structure in helping 10 other projects materialize in 10 years.

At the meetings in Oslo, we met up with many old friends whom I worked with during the years of the Alternative Future project in the 1980s. The idea then was to create a vision of how to solve the global social and the ecological problems in cooperation with some countries in the South. I coordinated this project for 8 years- unofficially meaning without salary and on my own initiative. Erik Dammann was the initiator then –as he was of The Future in our Hands, widely translated book- and is still active. It was fun to see how they were all still active and how in spite of following different paths we all were at the same place now ready for ecovillages and transition towns in a big way. Some of them with collecting ideas from local sustainable development in the “Banks of Ideas”.

The last 20 years I have been working everywhere but in Norway and Sweden so it felt like a coming home. Like a circle being closed. Ecovillages have been testing and trying out new models and are now ready for adulthood in creating truly sustainable communities from the bottom up in a mainstream way while we formulate a new ecological economy which will allow this to happen on a big scale. One of my friends from the 1980s, Jacob Bomann-Larsen, who was instrumental in getting 100 million NKR from the Norwegian parliament for the project then, was now interested in working to promote Ross’ radical economic ideas. Strangely enough, both Norway and Denmark in the past year have established professorships in ecological economics.

By Hildur Jackson, Denmark

"Models for sustainable living": New GEN project started

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 10:35:00 +0000

On March 1^st 2013 a new GEN-Europe project was launched which will be funded for two years by the “Umweltbundesamt”, the central German environmental protection agency. GEN-Europe and the European Business Council for Sustainable Energy (e5) will be working together on two thematic strands cooperatively which aim at mainstreaming the ecovillage approach and connecting actors in the field across existing institutions and society groups.

The first thematic strand, held by GEN-Europe, will present ecovillage solutions and the ecovillage approach to sustainability as possible answers to our pressing, complex and interconnected societal challenges to an urban audience and facilitate further connection between ecovillages in the German speaking community (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Over the course of the project several workshops and events will be organised and accompanied by public relations and a new website in German. Also, GEN will be represented at several conferences and gatherings.

The second thematic strand, held by e5, will focus on the field of the commons economy and bring together actors from ecovillages, the urban commons movement and business in Germany. Looking for potential technological, social or economic innovations and possibilities to mainsteam these in the established economy is the main goal of this strand. “Sustainable lifestyles through commons economy” is the project title under which four round tables with representatives from different fields will come together to work on the question how impulses from ecovillages can support the transition of society. The findings of these meetings will be involved in a concluding study on the economic potentials of the commons economy in ecovillages.

Where possible, these two strands will converge and benefit from synergies and mutual interests.

If you would like to be informed about events or the results of the project, please contact jonathan.klodt@gen-europe.org.

Tunza International Youth Conference 2013

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

It is an initiative that is meant to develop activities in the areas of capacity building, environmental awareness, and information exchange, with a vision to foster a generation of environmentally conscious citizens, capable of positive action. Important by-products of this strategy include the annual Tunza International Youth Conference, Tunza Advisory Council and a quarterly Tunza magazine. This year the conference was held from 10-14 February at the United Nations Complex in Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya. The objective of the conference was to provide a forum for young people to discuss the role that youth play in Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Forests, Food Waste, Water as well as the State of the Environment. Additionally, UNEP launched the Tunza Acting for a Better World: 5th Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-5 for Youth); a youth oriented publication that explains the latest environmental trends and how youth can play their part in working towards a better future. Actions to cut off food waste and to harness the power of social media to promote sustainable lifestyles were among the issues discussed on the agenda. the conference provided a platform for over 300 young people from 100 countries who came together to exchange information, best practices and most importantly; learnet from each other. Young people also had a chance to discuss the outcomes of the Rio+20 Conference and the Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals. During this conference, GEN was represented by one of its GEN Africa Ambassador. UNEP experts hold workshops, panel discussions and other events with young people to present the latest science on health impacts of environmental degradation. Other sessions covered water, sustainable consumption, green entrepreneurship, and new international targets that are set to succeed the Millennium Development Goals from 2015.

Links;

TUNZA acting for a beter world

5th Global Environmental Outlook

Rio+20

Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals

News from Spanish ecovillage network

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:16:00 +0000

On February 14th in the eco center Sunseed, in Almería, the Winter Meeting of the RIE (Iberian Ecovillage Network) took place. It was open only to members and members of the network, with the assistance of almost 50 people. That kind of meetings were established to help us to know more about the projects happening in the network and to establish the strategies.

Lately, new members are joining every year, which increases of our activities and initiatives. As an example of such an increase, the coordination team and staff of the RIE has grown from 7 members to 16 this year!

The initiatives we are working on can be summarized into two:

1. Training: The RIE is designing a training course EDE type, but adapted to our latin idiosyncrasies to deal with the increase of supply and demand of specialized courses.

2. Tutorial: from the RIE we have launched the "Ecovillage Incubator", a mentoring initiative for new groups or new ecovillages projects that we hope will multiply the number of sustainable settlement projects.

We are also about to launch the new website wich promises to be a landmark Spanish and Portuguese for anyone interested in sustainability issues, communities and ecovillages. The domain will be the same: www.ecoaldeas.org

NOTICIAS DE LA RIE

El pasado 14 de Febrero tuvo lugar en el eco centro Sunseed, en Almería, el Encuentro de Invierno de la RIE (Red Ibérica de Ecoaldeas), abierto solo para los socios y miembros de la red, con la asistencia de casi 50 personas. Estos encuentros fueron establecidos para ayudarnos a conocernos más entre los proyectos pertenecientes a la RIE, asi como para establecer las estrategias a seguir.

Últimamente se están sumando nuevos miembros cada año, lo que es supone un incremento de nuestras actividades e iniciativas. Como muestra de tal incremento, el equipo de coordinación y staff de la RIE ha pasado de 7 miembros a 16!!!

Las iniciativas en las que estamos trabajando se pueden resumir en dos:

1. Formación: la RIE lleva un par de años diseñando un recorrido formativo tipo EDE, pero adaptado a nuestra idiosincrasia latina, para hacer frente al incremento de ofertas y demandas de cursos especializados.

2. Tutoría: desde la RIE hemos lanzado la “Incubadora de Ecoaldeas”, una mentoría para grupos que empiezan o ecoaldeas en formación que esperamos ayude a que se multipliquen los proyectos de asentamientos sostenibles.

Además estamos a punto de lanzar la nueva web que promete ser un referente hispano y portugués para todos los interesados en asuntos de sostenibilidad, comunidades y ecoaldeas. Visitanos en www.ecoaldeas.org.

Internship opportunity for GEN in Findhorn Ecovillage in the North of Scotland

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:56:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

my name is Barbara, I’m a French student about 23 years old and I’ve found the opportunity to work for the Global Ecovillage Network during 9 months, as an Intern assisting the coordination of activities run by the office in Findhorn and the regional networks. This goes very good along with my masters degree which is about international cooperation and sustainable development. I would like to share with you my experience of working for GEN in Findhorn in case you may find it interesting to work with us!

It’s been over 4 months that I’ve started my mission now and I have to say that so far I didn’t have time to get bored of it! This network is really full of possibilities and even if it’s require a lots of administrative work by treatment of emails, writings of projects, web graphic, researches... I get the chance to reach many projects and activists from all over the world and could meet most of them in the future.
The best example I can share is our main project last December. We organized a 4-day conference that gathered over 55 activists from all over Africa…and this happened in Egypt! Now the GEN-Africa Network is officially born, and everything is happening really fast!
So I had the chance to participate in the conception of this event, connect with all these activists and meet them in person. I’ve discovered another example of lifestyle in the ecovillage who hosted us for the conference, and got inspired by all the sharing of experiences from the others participants - so strongly connected around the same goal … In two words I would say “learning by sharing”. I believe this is mainly what GEN is all about.

I should say also few words about Findhorn Foundation here.
This Ecovillage is well developed and represent a good example of what a spiritual community is, looking for well being and sharing. The area around the village is simply beautiful. The beach, the dunes, the bay, the forest ... I can’t get enough of it! I’m also glad there are often little events organized by inhabitants and help is always welcome if you want to get more involved in the community life.

I should stop now, but if you would like more information please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to tell you more about the projects you could be involved in.

If you are from Europe, several European grants are accessible that make it possible to cover the financial costs of your internship. For example I received two grants: Leonardo Mobility Program for 6 months and Gruntvig Visit and Exchanges for 3 months. The Leonardo program is related to a partnership between my school and the program but it should not be that difficult to set up this partnership for your organisation. I believe this program is also accessible by your national job agency for unemployed persons. For Grundtvig you don’t need any school or employer support. But for both, have in mind that you have to be European citizen… and be careful with the different deadline and requests for the applications! More info and existing programs at http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-programme/ldv_en.htm.

If you want more information, again – please write us to barbara(at)gen-europe.org
We would be delighted to welcome you here!

Warm regards from the GEN-Findhorn office,

Barbara.

Senegal: A Tribute to Coumba Kebbe Thiam (1904 – 2012)

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:15:00 +0000

Ma'am, or Grand mother, Coumba Kebbé Thiam was born when the last century was just four years old. It was time when her native Fouta toro province was no different from the biblical Eden. An exuberant area with such big trees that a traveller would rarely see the sun through the trees of the île amorphile or “elephant island” as they formed a giant umbrella. On her island, she could see every day lions, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, boars, monkeys and thousands of colourful birds of all kinds. During the rainy season, grandma had to take a canoe from Alwar to Guédé or to Ndioum as the whole area would be covered by floods. On one ordinary day, as grandma‘s herd drank from the Senegal river under her majestic supervision, a crocodile suddenly attacked one of her calves. In her place, I would have probably run away, hidden somewhere or shouted for help. However, Ma'am Coumba was not the kind of person who would consider any of these options. Without hesitation, she ran to the rescue of her animal. She solidly grabbed one of the hind paws of her calf with one hand while firmly holding a stick with the other. Maam Coumba started hitting the giant reptile until it finally let go of its prey. But Maam Coumba did not feel happy all the same, as her calf did not survive the attack. Another day, a lion attacked her cow and from a distance she cried so loud that the lion was scared and left her cow. For Maam Coumba, no living creature was, is and will ever be more precious than her cattle. When we were teenagers, my brothers, sisters and I used to help Ma'am look after her cattle. But when we came to a pond after a long walk in the burning sun, her animals would always be allowed to drink first before her own grand children. Of course her spoilt animals would wade into the pond, urinate and turn the water into a bad smelling pond. We would then have the right to fetch water with pots and wait for the water to settle. This was a way to teach us humility and respect for all living creatures. For over a century Maam has seen almost everything around her dwindle into nothingness. No more cows, lions or trees. Her once luxuriant elephant island is nothing but an immense desert. Now for most part of the year, the Harmattan wind blows its pitiless flames, turning mud into stones, stones into burning charcoal, charcoal into ashes. Sand storms add a greyish tone to a world coming to a close. The river by which she has always lived has become a motionless snake with no soul. The invisible beings that used to live in it and people our legends seem to be mourning in silence. Today Maam’s grandchildren are entering a different world as they take their first steps towards formal schools and education. Coumba Kebbe Thiam is the millennium baobab on the Elephant Island, A sacred link between the invisible and visible worlds, A sturdy bridge between the past and the future. She‘s resisted countless sand storms and calamities that carried many away Present and future generations will come to her for benediction, inspiration and wisdom. No travel or adventure will hold its promises without her prayers. For, Adja Coumba is a Divine Light. Maam has seen so much and so many souls. She knows all the secrets and legends of the Elephant island community. She binds the community together with its heritage and wisdom. Maam is the culture of the Dande Maayo She knows the blues of the Maayo Rewo, Maam is a living library to which many come to find a meaning to life, A holy water fountain which truly quenches the thirsty She is the strength everyone in the community wants to be Maam teaches the community to be strong and respectful of Mother nature She reconnects us with the soul of nature Maam, three moons after you’ve joined the invisible world of our ancestors, you’re still with us. You are will always be our community daily inspiration, our teacher and spiritual guide through life.

Ankara: Turkish Capital hosts one of the first Urban Community Garden Initiatives in the Country

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In early 2012, a group of Permaculture activists called ‘PermAnkara’ began their search for a piece of land in the centre of Ankara city where they could apply permaculture principles and share their knowledge with the local area. In collaboration with the 15 year old neighborhood association called Cigdemim, and Guneskoy Ecovillage - which is a GEN member - they started to spread the word and mobilize interested people. In a harmonious collaboration, rocks were cleared from the land, raised beds were prepared and compost materials were collected alongside the community building and training centre. Local seeds sent from different parts of Turkey were classified and planted according to the companion planting method. Pipes were supplied and installed for drip irrigation, and mulching was applied on the planted areas together with homemade worm compost. Furthermore, the municipality supported the community by providing water and fences to surround the planted areas. Interest was enormous from the neighborhood people and from children who were actively engaged and included in the process. There has also been great attention from the local and national media. The harvest was celebrated around early July and the results were surprisingly successful. Many kinds of healthy and delicious vegetables and herbs were harvested, such as tomatoes, watermelons, sunflowers, corn and zucchinis. “Cigdemim Community Garden” is now expanding its dreams for the future years of the Project. They have the vision of involving primary schools around the neighborhood in order to familiarize children with food growing and gardening practices. There are also plans for 2013 to organize Permaculture trainings and applications such as water harvesting, and growing a food-forest. This highly successful, voluntary initiative is now regarded as an inspiring example for other neighborhoods and municipalities, as a national showcase collaborative urban community garden.

Israel/Palestine: Walking for Peace in the War-shaken Holy Land

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:49:00 +0000

Eighty people started the walk at the Sea of Galilee, honouring the water, praying and meditating at sunrise on the shore. Rico Lütscher, one of the initiators described how: "We could feel the holiness of water. Water is life, specially in a region like this. We could also see that the Jordan River has been made into a sewage dump. Raising awareness for different water systems, for a different way to live in the Holy Land, was one of our purposes. Ecological sustainability is most crucial for peace." The pilgrims stayed in Palestinian villages, in Israeli settlements, at campfires, many times walking in silence, connecting deeply with the land. When the first bombs fell on Tel Aviv and then Israeli bombs hit Gaza, the commitment for peace became very tangible in the group: Mara Vollmer: "One night two Israeli soldiers came to our campfire. We invited them to join us under the condition that they left their guns behind. They agreed. One of our Palestinian pilgrims, an old farmer, burst out in tears. In his heart he saw all the Israeli soldiers coming back from Gaza, putting down their guns and joining our pilgrimage. A deep, heartfelt sharing followed. The Israelis that are presently, or had previously been soldiers, were deeply moved. I am sure that these kind of encounters will change the people on a very deep level." While the pilgrims walked, the tension rose in the country. Tanks passed by their sleeping places, helicopters over their heads many times, on their way to Gaza. They visited an Israeli settlement, a big challenge for forgiveness and reconciliation, especially for the Palestinian people of the group. Uri Ayalon: "In the name of Grace it is important to listen to all kinds of people and not create any borders." Dina Awaad from Bethlehem said, "It was the first time I visited a settlement, and it was hard for me." At the end she was happy that she went. She even felt sad for the people that have to close themselves inside of such a little world. Talking with settlers and listening to them, she felt in touch with their hearts, understanding that also for them it is a challenge to welcome Palestinians - the so-called enemy. In some Palestinian villages they were not welcomed anymore, because they had decided not to join the boycott and to visit an Israeli settlement. There was a night that they could not find a place to stay. As a group of universal refugees they went from place to place trying to find somewhere to stay, eventually walking out into the desert to sleep in nature. Mara: "We were so happy to leave all the borders and regulations and separations behind and be free. We danced, sang and had a big celebration. In this moment we received the message, that the ceasefire was just 40 minutes away. This was one of the happiest moments of my life." The PRV group´s vision is to build a Peace Research Village, a place of internationals, Israelis and Palestinians, working together for peace and showing how ecological and social sustainability in the Holy Land can look like. More: www.timeforpeace2012.tumblr.com More: www.prvme.org

Italy: "Olio Caldo quattro" in Damanhur

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 05:58:00 +0000

Literally translated, "Olio Caldo" means "Hot Oil". The term stems from a Damanhurian Myth "The Zafire Masks", where a group of travellers manages to escape the enemy by tricking him: They lay off all clothes in the snow, rub themselves with hot oil to survive the winter cold, and flee in the opposite direction, making the enemy think they had died. In 1986, the first "Olio Caldo" took place in a little old barn. Six people decided to live radically for a year, surviving solely on what they could cultivate, hunt or trade with others. Even their clothes, shoes and beds had to be made by themselves. This triggered a wave of craftsmanship in the rest of the community, in order to support the experimenting group with goods through barter. In this way, the whole community acquired a series of practical survival skills, which since then are part of Damanhurian cultural knowledge. After other phases of Olio Caldo 2, and 3, in October 2012 we commenced Olio Caldo 4. A group of young new citizens came back from a two week journey called "the Viaggio", a game of life, a transformational adventure used to bring change and renewal into the community. They decided they wanted to live on the farm to create a "new way of life", so upon their return, they immediately set up a tent and started to "conquer the Nucleo", Prima Stalla or First Stable (The Nucleos are a community within the Damanhurian Federation of Communities). This time, Olio Caldo would be as radical as that of 1986, but, at the same time, flexible and creative enough to integrate, inspire and transform the existing community culture. Within a few weeks, it became a federation wide movement, where people started to ask themselves: "What could I grow, create or invent to serve the tribe?" Where can we win an independence in places we don`t yet have? Where is a space we could cultivate in addition to that we already have? A wave of feverish, creative community work and experimenting swept through the nucleo-families. Some people ask whether Olio Caldo is a 2012 disaster preparation action? Not really. We are based on fast change and "on the spot" invention. In 1978, Damanhur was founded with the intent on becoming an independent nation of communities within Europe. The need for self-sufficiency in terms of food, clothes, furniture, health services, schooling, money, water, information, research and energy, are topics that have been long worked on within the communities, and are already rooted in the constitution, though not yet achieved 100%. In Italy, taxes are among the highest in the world. Everything you sell or use with the Euro is taxed at least 50%! This is a challenge for a community, because as it is building an alternative system with alternative services and a high complexity, the community is paying taxes to an "outside state" as well as internal contributions at the same time. Olio Caldo 4, besides catalysing cultural rebirth and renewal, is focused on making Damanhur independent from the globalized market with all of its crises, injustice, suffering and vulnerabilities. It is accomplishing this by creating an alternative system of goods and services within the community, and with other communities in the world, based on trust, solidarity, respect for life, arts, education, barter, a new ethic and alternative currencies. Some of the biggest challenges we face are in our heads, the little daily habits we have, the tastes, the likes and dislikes for specific products. We use humour and deep listening to come to new conclusions and agreements together. Our biggest strength lies in 35 years of community experience, an alive spirituality, a very diverse, international population with a multitude of talents and resources, a global network of centres, and many other communities and organisations we have friend-ties with. Maybe the time has come, where communities from all around the world form a new "union of life" and peacefully declare their independence from all national states they originally grew in. Damanhur, as one of many worldwide communities, has shown in a real-life model that a different form of society is certainly possible. Not only possible, but urgently necessary looking at the decay of today's systems. After all the public protests and revolutions in the streets of the last years, communities have worked hard for decades to create real functioning model alternatives in the world. Not to be simply copied and multiplied, but to be studied, learned from and re-created in a myriad of different ways. After all, humanity has lived for thousands of years as a tribe of many tribes, distinctive of language and culture, and therefore mutually enriching through diversity? With Olio Caldo 4 we are trying to do exactly that: find again ever deeper the nature, rhythm, art, skills and colours of our tribes. Please be welcome to contact or visit us, find more on: www.damanhur.org If you are interested in learning how to create a Biogas-Unit for your community, contact Simon at: west@gmx.ch There will be a course with the biogas-expert T.H. Culhane from January 4-6 2013 in Damanhur.

GEESE - Global Ecovillage Educators for a Sustainable Earth

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:48:00 +0000

The Goi Peace Foundation has bestowed the 2012 Goi Peace Award on Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), a pioneer in the 'new economy' movement, and fellow GEESE.

The annual Goi Peace Award honours individuals and organizations in various fields that have made outstanding contributions toward the realization of a peaceful and harmonious world for humanity and all life on earth. Created in 2000, previous Goi Peace Award recipients include Ervin Laszlo, Oscar Arias, Lester Brown, Bill Gates and Deepak Chopra.

Congratulations Helena!

A voice from Egypt

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:39:00 +0000

This article is not directly about politics, but as political change is a vital aspect of the social transformation occurring in Egypt at this time, it is a pertinent subject to be included. In January 2011, the Mubarak regime was toppled, removed by a revolution of the people. They took to the streets protesting against the regime until the president decided to resign on 11th February of the same year. There were also many struggles before the time of the elections, with tear gas shot towards Liberal demonstrators from the "police of the government" towards the masses, and people who tried to storm the president's house, the Itehadeyya Palace. Many people regard the toppling of Mubarak's regime as a miracle because it was a collective decision towards a goal that has lead to a positive result. However, the new constitution is now of a predominantly Islamist nature, being passed by 63% of the voters, including a small minority of Liberals. Still, Liberals believe in their cause, regardless of the hardships they face, because in the end what they wish for is a better Egypt for all, with less poverty, better education and infrastructure, and there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve those goals. This story could be an analogy to the Global Ecovillage Network, which is a network of global citizens that are focussed towards one goal, which is having a new environment with more greenery and more sustainable development for the well being of all the people. There are many examples positive role models for this, such as Damanhur, Findhorn, ZEGG and Tamera. Although there could be phase of ups and down ahead, still there is one mission and one goal.

Newsletter January 2013 - Editorial by Kosha Joubert and Leila Dregger

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 12:19:00 +0000

At this moment, we are delighted to share with you the very first GEN Newsletter! While the year 2012 has drawn to an end, new things were born. From now on, the GEN Newsletter will be sent out 4 times a year, showcasing inspiring solutions and examples of resilience from all over our beautiful planet. Thank you to all who gave their time, not only to do wonderful work on the ground, but also to make it visible through words and images. We received many more contributions than we could incorporate – some stories will be kept for the next edition, others will enrich the GEN-websites.

Please share this newsletter with your networks, with friends, cooperation partners and journalists. You might even be willing to translate it to your language! And remember to keep sending us your news (the deadline for the spring edition will be 10th of March).

2012 was a year of growth and harvest for GEN. We started and ended with a birthing process. In January, at a colourful ecovillage gathering in Colombia, CASA (El Consejo de AsentamientosSustentables de las Americas) was born, the Spanish-speaking network of South America. Not long after, GEN and CASA together with Gaia Education and Transition Town hosted a vibrant meeting space and stand in the People’s Summit at Rio+20 in Brasil, which brought us a gift of deepened connections and new friendships within our networks. As Vandana Shiva stated, we were not there for the outcome document, we were there for the people!

The concept of Ecovillage Strategies for Rural Sustainable Development was introduced both to broader circles of the UNDP through an online webinar and to policy makers of the EU. Also, GEN-International is currently moving its seat from Italy to Findhorn, incorporating as a Scottish Charity in order to seed projects through fundraising more easily. Finally, we are writing these words on the last day of a deeply touching and rich GEN-Africa Symposium, taking place in Sekem, Egypt. After four years of weaving magic amongst some of the most incredible African activists, GEN-Africa has been officially born!! Warm congratulations to the new GEN-Africa Council, the NextGEN representatives from Africa and the GEN-Africa Advisory Board. Watch our websites for the upcoming GEN-Africa strategy paper. We wish you an enjoyable read! With love and appreciation, Kosha and Leila (President of GEN-International and Editor of the GEN-Newsletter respectively)