In 1993 the inaugural meeting of what became the International Democratic Education Conference was held in Israel. Since then there has been a meeting of the IDEC virtually every year to nurture the fledgling movement. They have met, in England, Austria, Ukraine, Japan, New Zealand, United States, India, Germany, Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Korea. These meetings have sometimes been important for the development of democratic education in the places where they were held. There are now more that 200 democratic schools in the world and the number is beginning to grow fast.
But it is crucial that we continue the tradition of supporting low-income and third world schools and individuals who want to participate in the IDEC. This is often the difference between having democratic schools in these countries and not having them. We do not want this to become an elitist movement. As it is there are democratic schools in many struggling area such as Uganda, Thailand, Nepal, Bolivia, and Ukraine.
This year's IDEC will be in Scandinavia for the first time, In Finland in June. In order to facilitate the participation of developing world and low-income schools and individuals we have organized a crowd funding campaign to raise funds for their travel and expenses. The IDEC will donate the conference fees.
Of course, these days travel is not cheap, so please give generously as soon as possible, as visa's from these countries often take a long time, sometimes involving many late night calls (to far different time zones) to embassies stalling approval.
Thanks so much for your help!
Go to the IDEC Crowdfunding Campaign HERE
