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Northern Winter/Southern Summer 2014

Gaia Education in 2014: The Year in Review Giovanni Ciarlo, Gaia Education Chair of Management

As Gaia Education enters its tenth year, bringing sustainability education to communities and individuals everywhere, we – including Gaia Education course organisers, volunteers, supporters and global strategic partners - have many achievements to celebrate!

2014 was a special year and a special number it is! I’m no numerologist, but even I know that 7, the sum of 2014, has a reputation for being a magical number associated with all knowing & the desire for knowledge above all else. 7 is well suited to the events of this past year, one of the key roles of Gaia Education being to facilitate & support learning, and strengthening communities globally.

The year commenced with a new Management Team and with this, new processes. After a year of integration and refinement, we now have a regular team and, along with numerous freelance collaborators, are serving a growing public interested in Designing for Sustainability.

School EDEs in India and Estonia. In a couple of firsts for Gaia Education, a school has opened in Estonia, inspired by and based on the EDE (see article below) and in Orissa, India, the EDE curriculum is being applied as part of elementary school education at a national level. Our hats go off to the dedicated people of John George and THREAD, a local community organisation in Orissa, and to Marit Otsing & the EDE alumni in Estonia! With more school integrated EDE initiatives planned for 2015, this is an exciting new space for all involved in ESD.

Online Gaia Education Design for Sustainability programmes (GEDS). 2014 saw the successful completion of our first Portuguese GEDS programme, also the first GEDS to run on our own elearning platform! The English track is now also available on this platform. The Spanish GEDS Posgrado, still offered in collaboration with the Open University of Catalunya, is being upgraded a Master’s Degree programme for September 2015, as is the English track. Exciting new opportunities for professional development & online learning!

Gaia Webinars Another first for Gaia Education was the launch of our much anticipated Webinars. Focused on key components of the EDE curriculum, webinars included: Daniel Greenberg on Carbon Consciousness; Ross Jackson on Shifting the Global Economy to Sustainability; and Hildur Jackson on The New Story for Earth. This exciting way of offering live discussions on key sustainability issues will continue in 2015 with master presentations from the global GEESE community. Visit gaiaeducation.net/gaia-webinars!

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Closing the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development! Board member Jane Rasbash attended the World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development in November, capping off a remarkable journey for Gaia Education & creating a bridge for further contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals, adding to our ongoing participation in the UN-DPI (see story below).

New Partnerships Collaborating in the common mission of bringing sustainability education to communities around the world, new partnersships include Local Futures, Earth Deeds and, as a founding partner, ECOLISE. These partnerships offer concrete actions everyone can take to reduce the effects of global warming, with the goal of becoming a Zero Carbon organization.

Digital Publications The Teachers and Youth Activities Guides, two new resources available via www.gaiaeducation.net and on Kindle, are complimentary resources to the EDE curriculum & are gaining momentum as valuable reference materials for course organisers.

Project Based Learning (PBL) Under the leadership of May East & in partnership with CIFAL Scotland, our PBL initiatives have increased from one to three projects, focusing on food security, renewable energy & meaningful employment to those in extreme poverty.

Board changes After years of service & guidance, long serving Board member Michiyo Furuhashi and Michael Shaw have stepped down, while Graham Meltzer has joined us.

I am grateful to all of them and to all those who have volunteered their time and energy to support our global mission this year!

The year ahead offers some exciting new opportunities and challenges:

Continued development of new programmes The full engagement of our Gaian team of GEESE, Gaian@s, volunteers and ambassadors New partnerships and collaborations to intervene in disasters caused by global climate change The quest for further financial contributions to make the EDE accessible to economically challenged

populations everywhere Celebrating the 10th anniversary of Gaia Education in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of GEN!

With your help we will achieve all this and more!

To all of you, THANK YOU!! Giovanni Ciarlo

If you would like to make a financial contribution to Gaia Education, visit www.gaiaeducation.net/donate

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The Ground-Breaking EDE & ToT of Southern Bangladesh May East, Gaia Education Chief International Officer

The Building Capacity and Empowering Communities project, launched in 2013, aims over a period of 3 years to improve sustainable food security and livelihoods of vulnerable communities of Khulna and Bagerhat, through capacity building programmes and effective climate change adaptation strategies and interventions. The project is a cooperation between BASD, Gaia Education and CIFAL Scotland, and is funded by the Scottish Government.

Its second year saw a group of previously trained community leaders enrolling in a Training of Trainers aimed to deepen their food production, leadership and facilitation skills.

Through permaculture and ecovillage design approaches, the course provided community-led strategies to improve the economic and social stability of the villages, while preparing for and coping with climate change.

Participants, drawn from some of the most vulnerable communities in the region, included some of the most marginalised members within the villages. Over an intense 12 days, 14 women and 7 men have learnt and deepened practical and social skills and returned to their villages to practice and share learning with their neighbours

“ToT training provided me with practical learning on how to cultivate organic vegetables… It was very much effective for me, indeed. I am going to teach all that I have learnt to my Machmara village community.”

Usha from Mongla

The ToT was conducted by Pradyut Nayek. With over 2 decades of experience as a permaculture practitioner and a consultant of sustainable living, Mr Nayek is considered one of the top permaculturalists of the region. He is a resource person of the successful Siddharth Village project in India and has collaborated in Gaia Education’s other project-based learning activities.

Participants of the ToT EDE learnt the following approaches to food growing over the 12 days:

Round & liquid compost Garden beds: raised, diamond, nursery, pitcher Fish Tonic

Vermi compost & wash Potato and floating vegetable cultivation

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A Better Tomorrow Begins Today: World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development Jane Rasbash, Gaia Education Board Member Japan, 11-12 November 2014

“There is No Plan B as there is No Planet B.” Looking back over 10 years of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and heralding the follow up Global Action Programme (GAP) for ESD was the focus of the Conference. Irina Bokava, Director General of UNESCO welcomed participants saying,

“Building the foundations for lasting peace and sustainable development starts in the minds of women and men and this begins with Education.”

I was invited to attend in representation of Gaia Education, our Ecovillage Design Education Curriculum (EDE) being an official contribution to the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD, 2005-2014). There was multi-levelled representation from local NGOs, INGOs, universities and governments.

ESD was first mooted as critical for sustainable development in 1992 during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit. In Johannesburg (Rio+10) in 2002 a resolution was adopted to launch the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, commencing in 2005, with Member States committing to integrate sustainable development into formal and informal education systems. Synchronistically, it was around this time that Gaia Education was founded. Under the leadership of May East, our flagship curriculum, the Ecovillage Design Education Curriculum, became an official contribution to the decade.

The conference included multiple workshops and high level roundtable discussions. To strengthen GAP the Aichi-Nagoya Declaration on Education for Sustainable Development, celebrating the achievements of the ESD decade and calling for urgent action to further strengthen and scale up ESD, was finalised and endorsed.

Governments expressed an increased commitment to sustainable development and education as a key factor in reaching it. ESD has become a multi-stakeholder enabler for sustainable development galvanising innovative learner centred pedagogies in all areas of education. Key discussions and growing edges in ESD included how to

create more effective links between sustainable development and education policy;

mobilise resources and capacity for implementing ESD; create effective monitoring and evaluation systems to measure ESD change attitudes and bring an ethical approach into ESD initiatives

This is a summary of an article by the same title written by Jane Rasbash. Visit www.gaiaeducation.net to read it!

www.gaiaeducation.net/index.php/en/sustainability-online

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2014 EDE at Ananda Gaorii , Denmark Dada Krsnasevananda

November 2014 saw the completion of the first full EDE ever held at the Ananda Gaorii Community in Vig, Denmark (and the second full EDE in Denmark itself!!) A total of 21 students participated from almost as many different countries – Iceland, Finland, UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, USA, Canada and even Taiwan. Also interesting was the wide range of backgrounds from which participants came – farming, ecovillage children, banking, academia, permaculture, business, IT, inventing, yoga, start-up management and more.

The Ananda Gaorii spiritual community is located on a 13-hectare organic farm that includes an Ashram and learning centre. The 18 residents include three monks, a family, and a floating population of short and long term volunteers. Although not an ecovillage in numbers, more families are planning to move to adjacent land and talks are in process with the local administration. Along with offering courses and seminars, the farm grows organic rye, has a small orchard and veggie garden and an organic bakery.

Uniquely, there are at least eight established ecovillages within 15 minutes to an hour’s drive from our site, probably the highest concentration of ecovillages on the planet! Great relationships between these neighbouring ecovillages and ourselves enabled their active involvement in the EDE. Participants enjoyed a rich mixture of perspectives and valuable opportunities to experience a diverse range of ecovillages. Site visits included:

Svanholm with it’s beautiful manor house, unique income sharing system and large organic farm and dairy

Dyssekilde - close knit villages within a village, large population and successful school

Fri and Fro - great examples of green building and its close cooperation with the traditional Danish village to which it is attached

Hallingellile includes a beautiful common house, community garden and sociocratic system of self-governance

Fornyet Energi, one of the most skilled and artistic green building outfits in Europe.

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Being in the hub of Denmark’s ecovillage movement also gave us the valuable opportunity to have experienced guest trainers. Our weavers, permaculturalist Rakesh Bhambri and Transition Denmark founder Erik Lemcke, were complemented with Ross Jackson (alternative economy), Ditlev Nissen (legal and financial structures), Ole Uggerby (ecovillages and value creation), Nina Paludan (The Work That Reconnects), Matawan Baio (Native American Worldview) and Camilla Nielsen-Englyst (motivation). We also invited a panel of ecovillage entrepreneurs to talk about their projects and future opportunities,

sparking lots of networking amongst participants, ecovillagers and even local government representatives. New initiatives borne out of this include introducing local municipality to recycled-container housing, an organic fertilizer business based on recycled materials, and plans to establish a credit union.

Daily chanting, yoga and meditation, led by the monks, was a novelty of this EDE and, being a spiritually based community, we wanted to give the worldview element of the EDE due time and importance, encouraging students to reflect on the significance of worldview and ways to incorporate it into their design process.

Finally, the design process itself. Students got actively involved, made good use of the information and tools and came up with useful and exciting

designs with real world applications.

We are looking forward to our next EDE, planned for May 2015, where we plan to have even more participation from neighbouring ecovillages, on-site workshops, and much more!

When was the last t ime you visited www.gaiaeducation.net?

2014 has seen the launch of several new sections on the website. The Articles page includes an array of articles on ESD, while the Reports and Case Studies pages delve deeply into EDE programmes around the world and their Outcomes. If you’re in the mood to watch something, why not visit Gaia Webinars for a free master class!

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Voices of Hope in a Time of Crisis Symposium Giovanni Ciarlo, Gaia Education Chair of Management

In November of this year, our partner organisation, Local Futures, hosted the Voices of Hope symposium at the magnificent Cooper Union building in downtown Manhattan, in New York City. The symposium was initiated by the writings and films of author and localisation activist, Helena Norberg-Hodge (Ancient Futures & The Economy of Happiness), who is also a founding member of the GEESE (Global Ecovillage Educators for a Sustainable Earth) and a long-time contributor to Gaia Education. This was one of many similar events organised worldwide under the banner of Economics of Happiness Conferences.

The presentations given by guest speakers touched on everything from indigenous spirituality to local economics, cultural identity, storytelling, and even the untold reality of the carbon trade negotiations. They are living testimony to the force behind the New Economy movement, promoted by Gaia Education and others, and the importance of the authentic, locally rooted and holistic worldviews bringing hope to sustainable communities in every corner of the planet.

I was invited to attend in representation of Gaia Education, and in turn, we sponsored the event by announcing it in our social media and outreach channels. The Voices of Hope organisers created a unique programme of speakers and panel discussions, culminating in the launching of the Local Future’s project International Alliance for Localisation.

The International Alliance for Localization (IAL) is a cross-cultural network of thought-leaders, community activists and scholars from both the global North and South. Going beyond single issues, it brings together people concerned with biodiversity, climate change, social justice, peace, and inner transformation to link hands for a common cause: economic localization.

Gaia Education’s stand and those of many other organisations were constantly busy with good conversations and new acquaintances who took away information and inspiration from the roster of local and regional groups working in education, youth leadership, social justice, skills training, renewable energies, natural building, new economics, trade, policy, community development, research, and the environment. It was like a gathering of old friends after a long time of creating parallel trails towards local sustainability and resilience, derived from the wellbeing of the whole community.

Watch the visionary presentations from the Voices of Hope

conference on www.localfutures.org

www.gaiaeducation.net/index.php/en/sustainability-online

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Gaia Kool, Estonia: A School Integrated EDE Initiative Marit Otsing, Gaia Kool (Gaia School)

This northern summer in Estonia, the first new school inspired by and based on Gaia Education’s EDE curriculum opened its doors! Gaia School, or Gaia Kool in Estonian, is the inspiration of the Estonia 2011 EDE Alumina: Ele Koppel, Kaja Karu-Espenberg, Toomas Trapido and Marit Otsing.

The idea of establishing a new school which follows the principles of Gaia Education’s EDE Curriculum was born 2-3 years ago in the minds of participants of the 2011 Estonia EDE. The EDE was a powerful programme for us and during the course of it, we kept discovering ourselves saying, “It’s a pity that it was not taught at school when we were children! “ It did not take long for this to evolve into “Why should our children follow our mistakes? “ So a decision was made – let’s start with a new school which follows the principles of Gaia Education! From the outset, it was important for us that the school be officially recognised and inclusive of the state curriculum.

After a long 8 months of preparing the necessary documentation to establish a private primary school, Gaia School officially opened its gates in August 2014. A month later, 10 pupils started their school year at Gaia Kool on two separate locations. We have just finished the first semester and can proudly say that we are

all happy and even more convinced that this kind of school is needed in Estonia. Interest in our school is growing with more and more people looking towards schools with smaller classes and a creative atmosphere in which children open to their talent and grow up as people who can take responsibility and care for other people and Earth.

Following the state curriculum we have lessons for writing, reading, mathematics, music, handicraft etc. What is different in our school is the way we teach. Weaving in the aspects of the social dimension of the EDE, the length of lessons is

dependent on the level of interest of pupils and we discuss the content of lessons with children, creating an open space in which they can add their part into the work. Sometimes pupils who master some subjects can take the role of a teacher and share their knowledge with others.

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Drawing on the ecological aspects of the EDE, we of course are outdoors as much as possible. Our children play outside during the day a lot and every Friday we have classes outside of the school - hiking, picking mushrooms, visiting open air museums, etc.

Weaving in the worldview dimensions of the EDE into the school, we follow the calendar of Estonian traditional events. Every month we celebrate a traditional party which gives us an opportunity to gather together with parents and children.

Alongside these novel approaches, we are introducing new subjects into the curriculum. More about this will be shared in due course!

We are looking forward to the forthcoming years as we continue our big experiment hand in hand with our children and raising children who are happy, balanced and have the ability to be co-creators of the world community.

GaiaEducation Publications

An incredible 7 Day Sale on the Gaia Youth & Teacher's Guides on Kindle!

For the first time ever our two publications Gaia Youth Activities Guide and the Teacher´s Guide: Design for Sustainability are available on Amazon Kindle!

For just one week over the festive season, from 22nd December until 29th December, these Guides will be on a countdown deal: starting from a 67% discount on 22nd Dec down to a 31% discount on 29th Dec!!

Visit www.gaiaeducation.net/gaia-manuals for further info and to get your copy!

Alongside Gaia Kool, other notable initiatives on school integrated EDE’s include THREAD in Orissa, which is initiating the integration of the EDE curriculum into the national India syllabus, and endeavours in Brazil. Watch this space for more news on this exciting front!

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EDE Permacultura Cantabria Óscar Argumosa, María Hernández, Simón Pérez & Julia Ramos

The first EDE to take place on mainland Spain happened in the green mountains of the north of the country. Cantabria is a small region, very close to the sea and very well known for its traditions, local products and the Altamira Palaeolithic caves. The EDE was organised by Permacultura Cantabria, an organisation with a long history in promoting Permaculture, bio-construction and emotional management.

This EDE programme welcomed 15 youngsters, ranging from 20 to 34 years old and coming from every corner of the country, including the Canary Islands. This programme received funding from the European Union, making the costs for the participants very affordable.

We gathered at "Finca la Garma", a small and humble community project where a family of 5 members live and support several cooperatives, including a CSA for 30 families and a horse-riding school. All the students slept and lived in Bio-constructed houses made of strawbale, wood and stone.

During the 3 week programme we covered the 4 dimensions of the Gaia Education EDE curriculum: social, economic, ecological and worldview.

With a vision to give simple and easy to implement actions when creating a small community project in the countryside, this was a very grassroots EDE.

The programme started with a 3-day introductory course to Permaculture, combining theory and practice and covering topics like the principles of Permaculture, composting, food growing etc. Students built a composter, worked in the food garden and prepared bokashi, a compost tea.

As is very well known, building community starts from working at the individual level, making emotional management the cornerstone. Students were introduced to a technique that allows us to deepen into our emotions and be able to handle them in an appropriate way, using co-listening as its main tool.

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The economic dimension gave an overview of how the money system works and how we can change it; deepening our relationship with money; and how to build alternative systems that work at individual, local and global levels. This dimension included an introduction to Dragon Dreaming, equipping participants with easy project development skills that can be applied any environment.

Creating vibrant local economies and projects can be challenging. The programme therefore offered training in plant distillation and cosmetic´s production, showing students how simple it is to create a project that improves their personal economy while helping their personal and planetary wellbeing.

Day trips to a traditional market, a local brewery and to the beach for playing games allowed students to connect with local traditions and nature.

All participants were very proactive in creating activities that enriched the experience of others: 5 rhythms dance, yoga, knitting, percussion and building with bamboo.

The programme concluded with a workshop on appropriate technologies for green building and energy efficiency & production.

The organisation and facilitation team deeply thanks all participants for their commitment and willingness to learn, as well as for their positive energy and proactivity. This has been an unforgettable experience. You have gave us trust for new generations as you have come loaded with love, wisdom, respect and happiness.

GaiaEducation Certifications

The Certification Round for early 2015 Closes 31 December!

If you are planning to offer an EDE in the next six months or so, visit gaiaeducation.net/certifications, fill out the relevant application and send all your paperwork by the 31 December 2014.

The next deadline for applications will be April 30, 2015. For further information contact Marcos Beascoa at certification@gaiaeducation.net or visit www.gaiaeducation.net/certifications.

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The 2014 GEN International Summit: Scaling up Ecovillages! Leila Dregger

The GEN International Summit took place in Dakar, Senegal from December 10-14, with participants gathering from all five regions of the world. With the support of the German Foreign Ministry and the Senegalese Government, ecovillage activists met and presented their work on creating models for ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainability in rural and urban areas. A key outcome of the conference was the creation of a strategy paper on how to scale up the movement: from creating single ecovillages, to transitioning many villages into ecovillages and many cities into eco-cities. The paper will be presented at the 2015 GEN Summit taking place in Findhorn, Scotland.

"In this time sustainability is not enough anymore, it needs healing impulses for the planet. This is why we want to join forces with all sectors and create the miracles that are needed for humanity to survive. Ecovillages are a possibility that we see."

Kosha Joubert, GEN International President

Gaia Education @ The GEN Summit Julia Ramos, Gaia Education Communications Coordinator

Gaia Education was also present at the GEN International Summit in Senegal via the participation of Board members Daniel Greenberg, Margarita Zethelius & Jane Rasbash, Julia Ramos from the Management Team and Fasil Bogale in Finances. This helped bring Gaia Education´s vision of education for sustainability closer to Africa. We presented Gaia Education´s projects and programmes, including the EDE, GEDS and the Gaian@s programme. Attendant´s expressed interest in running new programmes in the Congo, Cameroon, Togo and South Africa amongst others. Expressing a desire to continue building fruitful relations with communities and organisations in Africa, Gaia Education announced we will be waivering the EDE certification fee for upcoming programmes in Africa.

"This was an enriching opportunity to build bridges and strongly weave the networks on an individual and global level. I feel grateful for having experienced that interconnectedness is positively working above my expectations."

Julia Ramos, Gaia Education Communications Coordinator

Another outcome of the summit was strengthened bonds between Gaia Education and GEN in preparation for the upcoming celebrations of the 20th anniversary of GEN and the 10th anniversary of Gaia Education. Keep tuned for more on this event, taking place in Findhorn in July 2015.

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Welcoming our first flock of Gaian@s! The last issue of the GEESE InFormation newsletter saw the launch of Gaia Education’s new ambassador initiative, the Gaian@s Project. We are now pleased to welcome the first Gaian@s into to the fold! The programme remains arms wide open to those interested in joining – visit www.gaiaeducation.net/gaian@s for further information and to access the complete profiles of below Gaianos and Gaianas!

Helen Long

Paula Soares

“I became a Gaiana because I deeply resonate with the principles of Gaia Education as a marvellous and effective tool to inspire to action and to promote the change Humanity and

the Planet needs…”

A recent environment & development degree graduate who works with children and more recently, adults withlearning difficulties, for hobbies Helen sells vegan milk in markets & writes articles for websites.

Luc Latala

“The holistic approach of sustainability & Education for Sustainable Development of Gaia Education is a road to help poor and discriminated communities to design their own

sustainable development & to become change makers of their life and societies.”

“Seeking for the truth, for a responsible, conscious and honest life led me to become a Gaiano…”

“I am a human being who believes in a more sustainable world, where respect among all beings prevails above all particular

things. Becoming a Gaiana emerged as a possibility to actively participate in a cause that I believe”

“Education was a beautiful and efficient way to help GAIA.”

“I’m strongly committed to a deeply felt and lived holistic reflection on integrated ways of Nature’s regeneration.”

Liz Maria Abi

Rached

Hugo Oliveira

Carol Mena

Terry Vergos

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Gaia Education Partners Introducing you to some of our long standing and some of our newly formed partnerships with organizations working on sustainable solutions and local community empowerment.

www.gaia.org

gen.ecovillage.org

www.nextgenna.org

outreach.un.org/ngorelations

www.ecolise.eu

www.transitionnetwork.org

www.earthdeeds.org www.localfutures.org www.ecohabitar.org permanent-publications.co.uk

The Economics of Happiness conference February 27 - March 1, 2015 Portland, Oregon, USA

All around the world, thousands of initiatives are demonstrating that we can create a better future: resilient communities, healthier ecosystems, equitable economies. Now we need to connect the dots, get together, translate understanding into action, and build a global to local movement!

Join Gaia Education at the Economics of Happiness conference to discuss, discover and devise better systems for now and the future.

Visit http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org for further information.

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Upcoming Gaia Education Programmes around the World Check out the below current and upcoming programmes, plus far more for 2015 on www.gaiaeducation.net

Gaia Education Online Programme English: Oct 2014 - Sep 2015 Spanish: Oct 2014 - Jul 2015 Portuguese: Oct 2014-Jun 2015 www.gaiaeducation.net Chile, El Manzano EDE 3 - 30 Jan 2015 www.elmanzano.org Thailand, Wongsanit Ashram 18 Jan - 14 Feb 2015 www.ecovillagetransition.org India, Siddharthvillage, Orissa 10 Feb - 8 March 2015 www.siddharthvillage.com

Argentina, Ecovillage Asociación Gaia 11 - 28 February 2015 www.gaia.org.ar Brazil, Gaia Nazaré UNILUZ 9 Mar - 27 Sep 2015 www.gaiaeducation.net

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