Learning to design a fair and sustainable society in EDE Damanhur
Since 2005, we have certified over 300 Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) courses, reaching over 17,000 students. The courses have taken place in many different settings, from intentional ecovillages to traditional communities, from urban slums to universities. One such unique environment is Damanhur ecovillage – an inspirational sustainable community in the Valchiusella valley, Italy.
The EDE course gives students skills in how to design a fair and sustainable society, encouraging them to bring their knowledge forward and create social enterprises, cooperatives, community projects or become trainers themselves. Veljko Armano Linta shares his experience of the latest EDE course at Damanhur (4th August-1st September 2018), giving us insight into his personal learning journey.
“The EDE was a fantastic experience. Macaco was a wonderful facilitator, full of support and wholeheartedly encouraging participants’ involvement and flourishing. The programme was intense, rich, high-quality, varied and inspiring. As participants, we created a strong, harmonious and creative sub-community. Damanhur as such was welcoming and inspiring and crazy in a good way. The whole experience was remarkably empowering in the sense of “walking the talk”.
This was a truly complementary experience to the GEDS (Gaia Education Design for Sustainability) and I’m very happy that both EDE and GEDS are parts of Gaia Education. I’m also looking forward to spreading the awareness more actively through facilitation, design and other actions. A group preparing an EDE in Denmark is interested in having me as one of the facilitators.
The case study that I co-authored in the GEDS Design Studio last year has been selected as one of the projects that will be exhibited at the 53rd Zagreb Salon of Arts and Architecture. The study features the Mexican village of Chichihuistan, where Monika Hoesterey [GEDS participant, organiser of EDE Chiapas, Mexico] is working to help transform it into an ecovillage.”
Veljko Armano Linta
At Gaia Education we are proud of the transformative impact our courses can have on individuals and communities. Veljko has now become a Gaia Education Certified Trainer, to spread sustainability knowledge always further.
