January 7th – February 7th 2024
January 5th – February 5th 2025
An intensive training on holistic living toward a sustainable future!
What is Ecovillage Design Education (EDE)?
This international Ecovillage Design Education course (EDE) is a 32 days course that is certified by Gaia Education & GEN (Global Ecovillage Network) and is organised and facilitated by certified trainers. Ecovillage Design Education program is recognised as a contributor to UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
The EDE provides students of all ages with the knowledge and practical skills on how to design a society or a community/village which uses energy and materials with greater efficiency, distributes wealth fairly and strives to eliminate the concept of waste. The knowledge of EDE is also adaptable for personal or family level of transformation, in urban and rural contexts.
EDE – also known as the Wing – programmes are based on the four core dimensions of Gaia Education’s Ecovillage Design Curriculum: the Social, Worldview, Ecological and Economic dimensions of sustainability. The curriculum was developed drawing on the experience and expertise developed in a network of some of the most successful ecovillages and transition settings across the Earth.
This four weeks EDE is divided using the four dimensions or the sustainability wheel & each week will cover one dimension.
1st Week: Social Dimension
• Community Building & Embracing Diversity
• Communication Skills & Decision-Making
• Leadership & Empowerment
• Art, Ritual & Social Transformation
• Education, Social Networks & Activism
2nd week: Worldview Dimension
• Holistic Worldview
• Reconnecting with Nature
• Transformation of Consciousness
• Personal Health & Planetary Health
• Socially Engaged Spirituality
3rd week: Economy Dimension
• Shifting the Global Economy to Sustainability
• Rights Livelihood
• Local Economies
• Community Banks & Currencies
• Legal & Financial Issues
4th week: Ecology Dimension
• Green Building & Retrofitting
• Local food & Nutrient Cycles
• Infrastructure, Water & Energy
• Nature, Urban Regeneration & Disaster Recovery
• Whole Systems Approach to Design
EDE’s Learning Process
• Participatory and interactive
• Practical and experiential learning
• Community building & community living
• Spirituality : head-heart-hands
When is this EDE taking place?
This EDE will be held from 7th January – 7th February 2024 and The 5th January – February 5th 2025.
Daily Schedule
Monday – Saturday
5.30 – 6.30 Am : Meditation(Optional)
6.30 – 7.15 Am : Yoga/Tai Chi(Optional)
7.30 – 8.30 Am : Breakfast
8.45 – 9.00 Am : Morning Check
9.00 – 10.30 Am : Session 1
10.30 – 10.45 Am : Tea Break
10. 45 – 12.30 Am : Session 2
12.30 – 14.30 Pm : Lunch & Rest
14.30 – 16.30 Pm : Session 3
16.30-16.45 Pm : Tea Break
16.45 – 17.30 Pm : Session 4 (Practical)
17.45 – 19.00 Pm : Yoga/Dance (Optional)
19.00 – 20.00 Pm : Dinner
Sunday : Day off, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner will be served as usual time.
What are the fee?
Full fee:
$1650 Euros per person for high quality facilitation by experienced and accredited trainers, Exposure trip, 3 meals each day and lodging, for 32 days program.
Early bird fees:
$1450 Euro per person, pay by 30th November 2023. Limited spaces available.
$1300 Euro for activist, environmental and social workers, pay by 15th November 2023. Limited spaces available.
If you are interested to join this program, but have challenges with your finance, please do get in contact with us. Limited number of partial scholarships are available. Please write to us at gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com to share your situation and we can open a dialogue to find a way that this course is still accessible to you and is fair for the organizers.
How to apply?
send your inquiry to
gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com and We will send registration form including instruction to make a deposit down payment of 200 Euro to secure your spot . The remaining fee, after the down payment, will be paid after the program is confirmed, through electronic transfer or cash at arival.
*** Please Note that this course will only happen when We have minimum number of participants which is 16 participants. We may cancel the course if it does not seem to reach the number. We will anounce on November 30th 2023 whether or not the course will happen. In case of cancelation from our side all the deposit payment will be fully refunded.
If We could not reach the expected number of participants by November 3oth, The course will be postponed to January 5th -February 5th 2025
Main Facilitators
Om Sunisa Jamwiset Deiters, Thailand (Female)
Founder of Gaia Ashram & Gaia School Asia. Lived and worked at Wongsanit Ashram in Thailand for 8 years. Here she was trained as and started working as a facilitator. In 2008 she joined the Ecovillage Design Education course held at Wongsanit Ashram. After her time at Wonganit she spent one year living and working at the Panya project which is a permaculture based community in Thailand. She has been Involved in NextGEN (Next Generation of the Global Ecovillage Network) for a few years and is committed to supporting the growth of the network in Asia. She teaches and facilitates courses such as Ecovillage Design Education (part of Gaia Education), Socially Engaged Buddhism/Spirituality and Training of Trainers. She has facilitated courses for NGO workers, young Buddhists activists, international students, children and teachers. She uses participatory teaching methods and her focus is on deep ecology and nature connection.
Petra Carman
Meet Petra Carman, PhD, a dedicated facilitator and independent researcher specializing in the human-nature relationship and social influence within ecovillages. With expertise in social, community, and environmental psychology, Petra’s insights are rooted in extensive participant-observation research within ecovillages, where she has also lived.
Since 2018, Petra has actively contributed to the Awakening Leadership Training program, an advanced 3-6 month Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) initiative in Thailand. Her roles encompassed program design, co-facilitation, and international coordination.
Petra’s expertise uniquely aligns with the cultural/worldview and social dimensions of EDE. She emphasizes holistic, embodied knowledge approaches, guiding participants on their transformational learning journeys, fostering mindfulness, empowerment, and personal growth.
Thao Ngo (Kin)
Thao Kin is a trainer and facilitator with a focus on ecology & environment. She has a master in Sustainable Development in Ecology and holds a heart for compassionate space holding. Started her work in the non-profit sector in Vietnam in 2012, she has been working with different hats in numerous non-formal educational projects in Vietnam as coordinators, trainers, facilitators and course designers.
She has a passion for Deep Ecology and is a Work-that-Reconnects Facilitator. Her calling is to bring the awe and enchantment of nature back to human consciousness through education and living experience.
Kin is also the network weaver at Global Ecovillage Network Oceania and Asia (GENOA) and member of the Network Steward Circle of GEN. Kin has been coordinating the online EDE course of GENOA called REGEN-Nations since 2020.
Benjamin Murray, UK, Male
Permaculture Practitioner, Teacher, Designer and Consultant
Benjamin Murray is an Ecological designer, consultant and teacher with a background in organic and biodynamic gardening / agriculture, natural building, horticulture & landscape architecture. Ben is the founder of Holistic Regeneration, has 20 years experience in the realm of Horticulture and has been consulting, practicing and teaching permaculture, organic gardening and natural building for almost 10 years in England, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Kenya and India and is currently working as an itinerant trainer of transformational and empowering workshops and courses.
Chanchai Chaisukkosol A co-founder of CoJOY Consulting, an organization aiming to help people reach peace in their lives and encourage communities and organizations to evolve into living organizations. His specializations are conflict transformation, collaborative decision-making, communication across differences, and transformational coaching. Chanchai shifted from a student of computer engineering to researcher in peace studies and hate speech, and conflict transformation practitioner. He has for more than 18 years worked both in public and social conflict (e.g. ethno-religious conflict in the southern provinces of Thailand and in Myanmar as well as the Thai political conflict, etc.) and organizational conflict (top executives, managers, cross-levels and cross-departments). Recently, he co-translated into Thai a paradigm-shifting book in the field of organizational development and management entitled, “Reinventing Organizations” (กําเนิดองค์กรสายพันธุ์ใหม่).
*More facilitators are awaiting for confirmation.
Register Now! and get your early bird ticket!