Author: John

John Byrde, born in 1943, grew up in the south of England. After a year of studies in social and economic sciences at Leeds University, he joined the Camphill Movement at Ringwood, attracted by the practical implementation of community living there. After completing the training course (seminar) in anthroposophical curative education at Camphill Aberdeen and a period as remedial teacher with children with developmental disorders, he moved to Switzerland in 1968. He spent the next 25 years there at Perceval, a Camphill center near Lausanne, where he was remedial teacher, house parent, seminar teacher, co-director, and board member, all the while married with four children. Perceval was deeply involved with local and wider initiatives, so John was active in founding and growing the Steiner schools at Lausanne and Geneva; the Economic Council of the Middle European Camphill Region; the French banking initiative La Nef; as well as in the Camphill Community and developing curative education and social therapy in wider settings. This led him, from 1990, to help develop initiatives in Georgia and Romania. In 1993 he moved to Romania to help build up the Casa Rozei center for curative education and social therapy at Urlati, Prahova, where he is today with his second wife, Roxana.