2025 ESC Introduction
New year, new volunteers that joined the project of Arterra Bizimodu through GEN Europe!
Lena Seyfried
MY LIFE JOURNEY SO FAR
Since a child, I have been moved by the crises of our times and have sensed a strong desire to change something. My one year after high-school volunteering in Peru in a residence for aged people has shaped me in many ways, seeing other realities of life and being confronted by other cosmovisions. Being moved by all that, I have decided to study an interdisciplinary study program about the interaction between humans & the environment. The community of fellow students has led me to transformative learning approaches and that’s where I first came across the GEN network. Since then, I have taken part in several community building courses, amongst them my SHE-EDE, which led me to the strong wish to live for a longer time in an ecovillage.
WHY I APPLIED FOR AN ESC WITH GEN
For me, GEN brings together all the different strings that I consider important for a cultural change towards a more regenerative life. As a student of environmental sciences, I have always felt that something is missing in the sustainability approach and that an outer change should go more hand in hand with an inner change. For me, the vision & mission of GEN tries to embody that on a practical level. That’s why I sensed a call to get to know the network better as a volunteer.
MY ROLE
In my role as membership ESC, I will support Franziska in weaving a network of sustainable communities within Europe. My tasks will especially be, continuing the member interviews that has been started by the ESC last year; writing the Moon Cycle Newsletter and the associated Journey; being the Office Link in NextGEN and of course being in contact with the members via mail to assist in what is needed.
MY DREAM
Bringing inner & outer change together. Cultivate spaces of silence where new ideas and collective wisdom can emerge. Researching in how matriarchal values can be involved even more in the ecovillage network.
Bernarda DeOliveira
MY LIFE JOURNEY SO FAR
I was born and raised in New York as a first-generation U.S. American and was lucky enough to be able to travel to my parent’s home countries from a young age. I believe this, along with my love of reading, shaped and widened my worldview and also sparked a curiosity in me to travel and learn about different ways of living. This curiosity turned into a need when I graduated university in NYC and felt that a traditional urban lifestyle was all wrong for me. In 2020, I moved to Portugal and then to Spain for my studies in Organizational Psychology and also to try out living in countries with stronger collectivist values. My journey to find my place in the world has led me to the world of ecovillages, where I hope to finally settle into in the journey ahead of me.
WHY I APPLIED FOR AN ESC WITH GEN
Last year I came to Arterra as a short-term ESC volunteer to help organize the RIE (Iberian Ecovillage Network) Gathering and it’s where I first learned of ecovillage networks (RIE, GEN Europe, GEN International). I felt so aligned with the social and ecological values of ecovillages, it felt like I had found “my people”. I left last summer knowing I would want to return the next year to dive deeper into this world. I chose to apply to the Gathering assistant position because I was curious on how the logistics of such an event happen but also to play a role in co-creating a gathering of ecovillagers from all over the world and expand my knowledge of what’s out there even more.
MY ROLE
I’m assisting Aurelie and Natasa in organizing the annual GEN Europe Gathering, this year being held in Hungary. My main responsibilities are to help with participants registration, coordinate with the workshop holders and collect feedback after the event.
MY DREAM
I dream of greater accessibility and awareness of this kind of lifestyle, as I believe its one that can offer a much more fulfilling, healing, and meaningful alternative to many people stuck in circumstances that are burning them out and harming them.
Viola Astolfi
MY LIFE JOURNEY SO FAR
Born and raised in the north-east of Italy, I was lucky enough to get to travel around Europe with my parents, seeing new cultures and meeting new people. My love for books and art made me realize that the path I took in university studying IT wasn’t what I wanted in life while the urban lifestyle was becoming too tight and suffocating. Experimenting with life and finding new meanings outside of our safe spaces is what brings our true self to light and the only way to find where’s ‘home’, at least it is for me.
WHY I APPLIED FOR AN ESC WITH GEN
I’ve always wanted to find myself in a position where I could help others in some way and GEN is giving me this possibility as well as trying myself out in a completely new environment. Never had I done volunteering nor heard of GEN before this, but I thought “why not?”, why stay at home and work when I can try this new, beautiful thing? I felt compelled to accept that if I want something to change, I’ve got to do something about it.
MY ROLE
I’m assisting Maja in the communications for GEN, whether that’d be social medias or the website. My goal is to render the content visually appealing as much as making sure it conveys the right messages to all those curious about what living in an ecovillage is like.
MY DREAM
I dream of collaborative change, of harmony, of no more senseless hate, of love and hope. I dream of bookshelves full of books for every different person. I dream for the world to be a kinder place to everyone. I dream of research. But my biggest dream, is to wake up in the morning and being able to breath clean air, to see Earth at her best and being grateful.
Valeria Bogani
MY LIFE JOURNEY SO FAR
Driven by curiosity and a longing for lives that “make sense”, I’ve followed the call of intentional communities and the ecovillage movement. In the past years I’ve walked paths that braid non-formal education in ecovillages with cultural anthropology – between shared stories, lived experience, and the fertile ground of community life. In my free time, you can find me with my hands in the soil, shaping brass into jewelry, knitting dreams into scarves, or fermenting food, beverages and ideas.
WHY I APPLIED FOR AN ESC WITH GEN
I applied with the desire to contribute to spreading the knowledge and transformative power of communities, creating emergent spaces for regeneration, un-learning and connection.
MY ROLE
My role is to work alongside Fanny and Dario to develop and implement international projects, making ecovillage knowledge and education accessible, fun and exciting!
MY DREAM
I wish to support the emergence of collective space to design different cultures, to cultivate seeds of hope and to trigger cultural revolutions that redefine the way we live.
“A new world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing…”
