Macaco Tamerice - a certified Gaia Education trainer

Macaco has been involved with Gaia Education for years and has an extensive knowledge in holistic regeneration and teaching facilitation skills. 

How have you been involved with Gaia Education over the years?

I have been involved with Gaia education since 2009, when I did my first EDE (Ecovillage Design Education programme) at Sieben Linden in Germany, thanks to my friend Kosha Joubert. It really was a life changing experience for me and since 2011 I have been organising and teaching EDEs in Damanhur and other places in the world as well as developing an online version of the live EDE together with my friend Taisa Mattos from Brazil. I have been also teaching ToTs (Training of Trainers) and recently I'm working with Gaia education as an EDE and ToT in person consultant.

What’s your biggest motivation for working with the Gaia curriculum?

My biggest motivation in working with the Gaia curriculum is its power of transformation. In over 12 years of working with it I have seen how powerfully it impacts people's lives. It offers so many practical tools that together with the personal and group building processes creates a beautiful and life changing learning adventure. It is together full of new knowledge and very exciting in every minute. I truly believe that this education can have a meaningful impact in transforming the world we live in into a regenerative future.

Can you tell us a bit about the projects you do outside of Gaia Education?

I have been involved with the global Ecovillage Network since 2007 and held many different roles from being the president of GEN-Europe for several years to being part of the new Network Steward Circle. Together with my friend Ousmane Ali Pame from Senegal we started the first twinship between an Ecovillage in the global north and in the global south and in the last 2 years I have been coaching online a group of woman in leadership and conflict resolution in the refugee camp Kakuma in Kenia. At the moment I'm coaching a group of people from the camp to create an Ecovillage in Kakuma. Kadjosi Matabishi president of the association Des, living in the refugee camp, has participated in the first online EDE and sharing with others about what he experienced  and learned created a  group to transform the harsh reality of the camp into a new reality with perspective.

What are some of greatest lessons you’ve learnt from living in an ecovillage like Damanhur, Italy?

I have been living in Damanhur for almost 30 years and I have learned that together we can make it. The power of a group who deeply believes in the same values can truly transform our reality and create the one we want to see. It has also taught me that living in an Ecovillage is always a process and not an outcome. Living together with other people, using the right tools, can accelerate our personal growth exponentially. I have also learned that change is the only constant in life and when you dance with it you are happy, when you try to stop it life becomes challenging, I have experienced that trust in life and in the others is one of the most important points for a happy life.

Damanhur ecovillage