Escola da Esperança

03/07/2023

What a lovely way to finish the school year in our homeschooling community with all of us beeing together, kids, teachers, parents, family, friends and neighbours. Thank you so much for the strength throughout the year, the commitment, the humour, the joy, the creativity, and much much more.

We hope you will enjoy the summerbreak, use the time in a recharging way and hope to see many of you around 💙💙💙

photos taken by Eiko Goldbeck, all rights reserved

09/05/2023

The “Fire Phoenix” learning group of the Escola da Esperança project, 6 youngsters aged 11-13 and 3 adults, made a road trip to Damanhur, a community in Italy, in February 2023. Through our experience, we find that such journeys offer a unique richness into the learning process of the students that is difficult to create in conventional school settings. Such a journey – including the fundraising, pre-journey preparations and after work – becomes a big communitarian process that trains teamwork and motivates the students to meet new challenges. Full report here: https://escola-da-esperanca.org/current-news/we-went-to-damanhur/

01/05/2023

We would like to share with you some highlights of our youthwork during the easter break and wish you a great international workers day!!!

This year we had the ambitious plan to walk along the Portuguese Atlantic coast, the Costa Vicentina.

As every year, we invited 20 people we already knew from previous youth camps. This year many young people who grew up here in Tamera and then left for their education were with us. It was a beautiful reunion of the last years’ different youth group constellations and a big joy to connect again and get to know each other anew.

Besides the physical challenge of walking for a week, we decided to retreat from usual distractions like drugs and smartphones. This challenge was received quite easily by most of the teenagers, and was seen as a huge gift in our reflection round.

We were 25 people in total with the plan to walk from Odeceixe down south to the Cabo de São Vicente, the most south-western point of Europe’s mainland. This route is about 80 km long and we planned to walk it in five days. We took the challenge to find beautiful spots on the way which would host us for the night and had a break at a friend's place in Carrapateira for one day of rest. We also used it to come closer together socially through games, free time and sharing rounds.

On Sunday, April 2nd at noon we arrived in Odeceixe at a parking lot with a beautiful view onto the beach, being received by this seemingly endless ocean and its waves coming in. We did an initial prayer to welcome the group in this endeavour and invited nature and the land to guide and protect us on our way.

For this first day we had the pleasure of Babette Sabine Lichtenfels, the co-founder of Tamera, walking with us. This felt very meaningful for the group, as she herself has led and walked several pilgrimages in different countries before. We could get a taste of her knowledge through her storytelling about those experiences being on the road and the time of finding and founding Tamera in Portugal back in the 90’s.

We also took the first day to walk with the question of our intention. Why and for what are we here? How can we make use of this time in the best way?

We always started walking in silence, taking time to innerly calm down, to start perceiving the world around us and eventually also the worlds within. Afterwards we took some time to walk in couples to exchange about what came up for each one. Other topics we walked with were the power of thought, community and trust building.

The coast is stunning – what a landscape! This special nature reserve of the Costa Vicentina with its flowering plants during this beautiful springtime. The warm sun, cold wind and breaking of turquoise waves on the rocks and beaches accompanied us all the way to the cape. We were really protected and held in beautiful places each day and night!

We had a rotating logistics and kitchen team that accompanied us by bus to prepare the spots and food for the hungry pilgrims who often only arrived at the resting places in the late afternoon.

What a gift it was to constantly be outside in nature, walking and leading a very simple life without much distraction. Many of the participants shared about their stress-level dropping a lot throughout the time.

Beautiful songs were being created and a lot of music and creativity was present while walking or around the fire at night.
We succeeded in creating a real community time and also had very moving spaces of sharing amongst each other in boys and girls rounds and sharing rounds with everybody around the fire. One could really feel how the teenagers could open up, come into contact again with themselves and each other. It was a time where everybody was contributing and taken care of by the group simultaneously.

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this possible!

For further information about our work:
escola-da-esperanca.org/
tamera.org/youth-school

Pictures were taken by Gwendolin Staub © Tamera, all rights reserved

28/04/2023

JOIN US FOR A POLITICAL CAFÉ & FILM PREMIER ABOUT WATER & AGRO-INDUSTRY IN ODEMIRA
At Tamera's Cultural Center on Thursday, May 4, at 8.15pm.

JOIN US FOR A POLITICAL CAFÉ & FILM PREMIER ABOUT WATER & AGRO-INDUSTRY IN ODEMIRA

At Tamera's "Aula" (auditorium) on Thursday, May 4, at 8.15pm.

We will do a debut screening of a brand-new documentary made by friends Samuel Viana and Kathleen Harris (more information below). Samuel will be here in the first half of May and introduce the film.

Fátima Teixeira will give an update on the current situation around water and agro-industry in our region.

We hope to see you here! Please feel free to invite and bring along others who may be interested.

***

"This is a Story about Water" / "Esta é uma História sobre Água"

Portuguese/English film, with subtitles, 26 minutes.

Directed and produced by Kathleen Harris and Samuel Viana

Synopsis:

This documentary explores the impacts of industrial agriculture and a changing climate on a rural community in southern Portugal, where multinationals grow berries bound for supermarkets across the UK and Europe.

We meet local farmers as they compete with these multinationals for water resources. Migrant workers as they struggle with low wages, crowded accommodation and integration. A primary school teacher as she helps children of migrants, who only speak Nepali, Urdu or Hindi, adapt to the Portuguese curriculum. A scientist as she condemns the expansion of greenhouses - and their use of pesticides and fertilisers - into what is meant to be a Natura 2000 haven for some of Europe’s most threatened species and habitats. Activists and artists who protest what they see as a threat to both people and nature. And the berry producers themselves, who must manipulate their plants to grow in a way that optimizes the harvest for profits. This mosaic of voices captures some of the complex social, political and environmental knock-on effects of our global food system on various communities within the Alentejo.

28/04/2023

Another quote from natural farming legend Masanobu Fukuoka reads: “Where water runs, make it walk.” This is a beautiful articulation of the need to slow water down, spread it out, and let it soak into the landscape to avoid erosion, create fertility, and recharge groundwaters 💚

27/03/2023

Wow, what a great way to finish the week in school! On friday after lunch we had all the kids with their parents on our place taking care of the school area together. It was such a bliss to see the care and beautification happening with so many helping hands. Thanks for the joy and togetherness that was present and all the support that was flowing.

Have a great start into springtime and the new week 🍀🌻🌺🌈

25/03/2023

In the end of May our team will be hosting a special 10 days introduction week in Tamera with an emphasis on raising free children. This on sight course will offer an insight into the foundational ideas and the different areas of our work – from ecology to spirituality, from children in community to education for and in the future, from global peace work to love and sexuality.

We are happy to share this invitation with you, on our homepage you will find further information about the event.

This course offers insights into our work on building a healing biotope, the spiritual & political foundation of our work, especially on raising free children.

06/03/2023

Our dear traveling students made it home again full of new experiences. Before we offer more final thougts we wanted to share one more diary and some pictures they sent from their last part of the journey:

In the past few days we met many people and did many exciting things. Meeting the 2 “presidents” of Damanhur- one of them a young, vital man who was born in the community- where we learned about their social and governance structures. Visiting their farm. A plant communication workshop where one can listen to the changes of subtle frequencies/electric resistances within a plant depending on what happens in its environment. Visiting several nucleos. Yesterday we had a day trip to Turin where we visited the magnificent Egyptian museum of Turin. All of these activities with the school of Damanhur, which is a homeschooling project similar to ours in many ways. With all of these common activities, it hasn’t been so easy for our groups to mix and connect, as there was no common language amongst us and there is a lot of shyness.

On top of all of this in our group we’ve had personal sharings and reflection on what we’ve experienced and learned, aaaand as well the Portuguese homework or reading and writing. As you can imagine, it’s been a very rich time.

Today we will have our final school activity, which will be an art time involving clay.
Tomorrow we will again visit the underground temples for another two hours and after that plan to head to the mountains where we hope to be with the snow in nature. There’s snow in the forecast!

Oh yes! One more thing. Our group presented ourselves in the big community meeting of Damanhur. It was exciting for everyone!

Thank you again for having you in our back, without all of you around supporting such a project would not be possible!

25/02/2023

OUR ON-SITE OFFERS FOR COURSES & WORK STUDY IN 2023

Dear friends,

As the first signs of early spring can be felt in the Alentejo, we’re very happy to finally be able to invite you to our upcoming season with many exciting offers for this year. We’re sorry to have taken so long! We’re aware some of you have long been waiting.

We’ll be open for visitors between April 13 and November 12. One way to spend time in Tamera is by joining our courses and events. Here’s a quick overview:

— INTRODUCTION COURSES provide a comprehensive insight into our philosophy, community and different research areas while being, for many, a powerful first community experience. There will be general introduction weeks on May 23-29 (https://rb.gy/xi0wj3), September 23-29 (https://rb.gy/j8wh6c), and probably other dates, to be published later.

And we have ones with special topical emphasis:
— Cooperation with animals (April 14-25): https://rb.gy/3ismla
— Spiritual ecology (April 22-28): https://rb.gy/hcr31w
— Raising free children (May 20-29), our main offer for parents to come with their children: https://rb.gy/quwjjw
— Love and sexuality (June 23-29): https://rb.gy/abj8jp

— TWO COMMUNITY COURSES — in-depth communal immersions including Forum and other powerful group experiences as well as studying our key learnings on what holds communities together. One offer is led by two experienced elders (October 2-29: https://rb.gy/wsipe4), the other led by a younger team with a particular invitation for LGBTQ+ people (June 1-21: https://rb.gy/1uu4kg).

— TWO COURSES ON WATER RETENTION LANDSCAPES, an approach to decentralized, natural water management that we’ve modeled in Tamera and consider a key in response to the ecological and climate emergency. We offer a 7-day introduction, June 30 - July 6 (https://rb.gy/eg6bfl) & a 10-day seminar, September 21 - 30 (https://rb.gy/qhuqzt).

— A political week-long course on REGAINING REALISTIC HOPE (July 9 - 15: https://rb.gy/tqa2mp) for people who already know Tamera. We will look at: What is genuine hope in these times? What is the difference between wishful thinking and realistic hope?

We still plan to publish more offers like introduction weeks and other seminars this year. Please stay tuned and check back on our event calendar in the coming weeks: https://rb.gy/les7oo

If you want to stay in Tamera for a longer period (at least 5-6 weeks), consider joining our program for WORK STUDY IN THE KITCHEN (https://rb.gy/uslcj9). You’ll be part of a service group that cooks, while experimenting with and living community in our guest center, accompanied by experienced group facilitators. By joining you support us run the season.

We’re also still looking for cooks and chefs with experience in vegan cooking from April to November. We’re looking for people who want to stay with us for two to three (or more) months, are ready to cook meals for 50-100 people and can lead shifts with 3-5 helpers. If that’s you, please reach out to us at [email protected]. Our cuisine is vegan and mostly regional and seasonal.

We’re looking forward to welcoming and hosting you here.

In joyful anticipation,

Magdalena Necochea, Naila von Mendelssohn & Andy Wolfrum (the managers of Tamera’s guest center)

20/02/2023

Our traveling students made it to Damanhur after many kilometers on the road. We wanted to share some insights of their first days in the the community.

"Yesterday was very strong. We had a guided tour in the Community Center of Damanhur called "Damjl", we heard a lot of stories about how this community was created, about the founder Falco's life and the magic in it, how the community uses art and "game fights" to solve conflicts - which the kids really liked, about art and finding ways of self-expression. After we were training ourselves in writing reflections and sharing in the group. The kids are amazing and the group feeling is growing. In between sweet moments, playing all together on the floor, snowfighting, laughter, teasing each other....

Then in the evening we had a tour through the Temples. This was so impressive! Coming out of it felt like a dream. So much detail and time people invested to use art to build a magic space. The visit was a unique experience for all of us. It's so hard to put into words all of the impressions coming out of all of us after such an experience, but overall we can say it was inspiring for everyone, each in their own way.

Today we get more settled in our home "nucleo", start to get to know the people here, do homework and discover more of this inspiring community.

Many greetings to all of you!

Ps: If you are interested in a short documentary about Damanhur and their temple, here is a recently produced video that offers a glimpse of the place and its people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTyNa_KO_0A

01/02/2023

We are celebrating! Finally we finished our fundraising and our students from the fire-phoenix group can finally prepare their departure to the Damanhur community in Italy in a few weeks.

The students have been very busy also after the holidays to create actions like a cinema for the neighbourhood or a carwash action in order to present their undertaking and receive support.

With this we want to send a huge gratitude to all supporters and angels that make this educational journey possible ❤️❤️❤️

If you are curious about their plans, you can find more infos here:
https://escola-da-esperanca.org/current-news/a-journey-to-damanhur/

20/12/2022

"Our fundraising continues...
Last Saturday we had the pleasure to serve many, many people oven baked pizza. We also provided warming chai and juices in a cozy inside space where adults and children gathered with nice talks and playing games. Everything was on donation basis and what came back to us was a huge gift. Overall we raised a little over €650 in this event. That is nearly 10% of the entire journey. Thank you to everyone that came that day and gave what they did and also a big thank you to the Youth Team of Tamera, many of who have gone on such extended journeys, who were the backbone support for this pizza event. Muito obrigado!"

If you want to know more about the undertaking or support one of our learning groups you can find further information at

https://escola-da-esperanca.org/current-news/a-journey-to-damanhur/