****GEN/GAIA****

Looking back at Kitezh and it's history we cited earlier. In (Haven.12) the Kitezh history given lists Kitezh's website url http://communities.gaia.org/kitezh/ as a source. That url is currently dead, but looking at the Wayback Machine for this url, it has activity leading all the way up to 2008 when it was deleted (Haven.13). According to the page that you get redirected to, communities.gaia.org, GAIA's mission "is to promote a new, global consciousness which sees our entire planet as a living organism with Humankind as an integral part of the entity" (Haven.14). What you discover (via a link on GAIA's site) is that Kitezh is one of many communites that is part of the "Global Ecovillage Network" (GEN), as seen in Findhorn's video, which is "an internal network of ecovillages, administratively divided into three autonomous regions:

1) ENA: The Ecovillage Network of the Americas. ENA is further divided into 9 regions covering the Western Hemisphere from Canada to South America.
2) GEN-Europe, which is organized nationally with about 20 national networks active at this time.
3) GENOA, or GEN Oceania/Asia, which has national networks in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Sri Lanka and evolving networks in Japan, India and other countries of the region.

GEN’s primary purpose is information exchange among the thousands of projects across the world that are building and living in small intentional and traditional communities in harmony with nature, as well as information dissemination to the larger world. GEN does this with seminars, newsletters, educational programs at many ecovillages, and an active website with easily accessible contact addresses of members, resource lists, and links to related activities. GEN has consulting status with the United Nations agency ECOSOC" (Haven.15).

On GEN's website, they list both the Gaia Trust and Gaia Education as two of their four main "partners" (Ecolise and Sircle Project being the other two). On Gaia Trust's page on GEN's website they give this description: "Gaia Trust, Denmark is a charitable entity supporting sustainabilty projects around the world. It was founded in 1987 on the initiative of Ross and Hildur Jackson, with the intention of supporting the transition to a sustainable and more spiritual future society through grants and proactive initiatives.

Two NGOs especially have been supported for many years and continue to be supported, namely the Global Ecovillage Network and Gaia Education. Many other smaller projects in the areas of local sustainability initiatives, permaculture, etc. occasionally receive supporting grants" (Haven.17). Gaia Education, of which Ross Jackson is also on the board, has this description on their own website:

"Gaia Education is a leading-edge provider of sustainability education that promotes thriving communities within planetary boundaries... This initiative was launched at Findhorn in October 2005 by a group of Ecovillage educators calling themselves the GEESE (Global Ecovillage Educators for Sustainable Earth.) The key program is a UNITAR-endorsed 4 week holistic introduction to designing sustainable settlements" (Haven.16).

*****NEEDS MORE RESEARCH DONE ON GEN AND GAIA. ROSS JACKSON ETC IN INVESTIGATION.TXT*****


Relevant links (from [Haven]) {

12. Kitezh - http://www.friends-partners.org/ccsi/nisorgs/russwest/kitezh.htm
http://archive.is/9J3vi
Since 1993 Kitezh has functioned as a non-government, non-profit home and school for orphaned Russian children in a community of foster families who live together on a large piece of land in a rural area 300km south of Moscow in Kaluga region near Baryatino.
KITEZH is a revolutionary eco-village community, providing a unique form of family-based care for homeless and orphaned children in Russia. Here they find a positive experience of family life which enables them to recover from the trauma of earlier years to become open, loving, valuable and contributing members of society. With the right kind of support, Kitezh is becoming a real and inspiring alternative model to the present state-run child-care institutions.

13. Gaia listed as a source in article above: http://communities.gaia.org/kitezh/
Wayback Machine history: http://sli.mg/kqjsOR

14. redirected to: communities.gaia.org/
http://archive.is/5gGoa

15. GEN - http://gaia.org/global-ecovillage-network/
http://archive.is/4RAw8

16. Gaia Education: http://gaia.org/gaia-education/
http://archive.is/o1LQF

17. Gaia Trust - http://gen.ecovillage.org/en/gaia-trust
http://archive.is/4zY1G

}