Organising team
Organising partners
Orvita
NGO that stands for living and learning in flow and connection through self-directed education and non-violent communication. Orvita organises a Democratic School (start-up), children holiday camps, training for parents and teachers and inner child constellations.
QUEST
European Network promoting children’s right in education through Democratic, Inclusive and Sustainable Education. It performs action-research, advocacy actions, networking and organises events and trainings.
CollectiveUP
Organisation organising initiatives that benefit individuals and communities through democracy and participatory practices, among which research, comparative studies, curating and creating technologies and methodologies for social impact, and disseminating them.
EUDEC
EUDEC stands for European Democratic Education Community. It is a non-profit organization that promotes democratic education as a sensible educational model for all democratic states. Its members are individuals, schools and institutions throughout Europe with decades of experience in democratic education.
Meet the organisers

Marie Pons
Co-founder of Orvita, a facilitator supporting children in self-directed education and nonviolent communication. Trainer for adults, guiding them to educate children in a self-directed manner using nonviolent communication principles. Trauma therapist specializing in healing the inner child.

Stijn De Neve
Passionate about Democratic Education since discovering it in 2009, Stijn is a co-founder of the democratic schools Sudbury School Gent (no longer active) and Orvita (re-starting), where he has served as a facilitator. At Orvita, he also provides training on self-directed learning, play, and nonviolent communication. Stijn has visited numerous democratic schools across Europe and has participated in every EUDEC conference since 2011, as well as every European IDEC conference since then.

Sigrid Delmotte
I started thinking about new ways of education after visiting a beautiful free school in Germany. Through Orvita and attending the EUDEC conferences – the Summerhill Festival of Childhood in 2022, Bulgaria in 2023 and The Netherlands in 2024 – I learned more about democratic education. The last six years I have been working in a state school as a welcoming teacher for children that are new in Belgium. This experience strengthened my wish to contribute to the knowledge and practice of democratic education. I am particularly interested in bringing the democratic approach into state funded schools, so that all children can benefit from it.

Martina Paone
Co-founder and coordinator at QUEST, Council Member at EUDEC and in the Research and Theory Circle of EUDEC, Sociocracy Facilitator. Former co-founder of BOS Democratic School.

Kenny Vranken
A primary school teacher passionate about the pedagogy of thrust. Over the years, I’ve seen children and teachers lose their innate curiosity, motivation, and joy in learning. The rigid curriculum leaves little space for what truly interests students. But after visiting several democratic schools and having collaborated in a European democratic education project, I realized education could be something entirely different. Something driven by freedom, curiosity, and authentic engagement. I’m committed to co-organizing IDEC@EUDEC 2025 because I believe every child deserves to learn with passion and purpose.

Liliana Carrillo
Agile Learning Facilitator and Democracy practitioner, ambassador of the Democracy Earth Foundation and member of the European Democratic Education Community. Founder of CollectiveUP, and TEDx speaker advocating for liquid democracy at the global level.

Sabrina De Troyer
Facilitator and child interpreter. Passionate about heart-based education, she started a project Happy Child Development place for homeschooled children (Gelukkig Kind Ontwikkelplek).
She also mentors labeled children who are dropping out of school.
Today’s children are telling us through their labels that the system needs to be adjusted according to their needs. Democratic education provides an answer to those needs. Through natural and self-directed learning, children can follow their unique learning path.
And more…
Several other wonderful people contribute to the organisation of IDEC@EUDEC 2025.