Escola da Esperança: educating young next-gen earth stewards
Portugal
Education, Community, ResilienceES
Escola da Esperança
Portugal
Nonprofit, Community GroupEscola da Esperança — the School of Hope — is a home schooling project rooted in the Tamera community in the Alentejo, Portugal. We are not a conventional school. We are a learning community where children grow up embedded in a living landscape of restoration, peace research, and hands-on discovery. Since 2018, we have run a community-based learning space for children aged 4 to 14 from families at Tamera and the surrounding region. Our approach combines Montessori-inspired open learning spaces, project-based teaching, and direct immersion in real-world work — gardening, water retention, animal care, theatre, and travel. Children learn by doing, alongside adults who are actively building a regenerative culture. As part of the wider Vale da Gema Headwaters Consortium, our immediate work is to expand this home schooling model so more children can grow up knowing how to care for soil, water, and community.
Project story
Children at Escola da Esperança don't just learn about ecosystems — they grow up inside one. Their classroom is Tamera's Water Retention Landscape: 150 hectares of restored swales, ponds, and oak forests where water has returned to dry land. They plant trees. They feed animals. They walk the swales and understand, from age five, what a check dam does and why it matters.
This is what education for regenerative earth stewardship looks like. But right now, we can only offer it to a handful of families.
We are a home schooling project — a learning community of parents, tutors, and children who have chosen to educate differently. Our model works: open learning spaces for self-directed discovery, project-based immersion in real work, and regular contact with experts in ecology, peace research, and the arts. Children prepare for Portuguese equivalence exams while also preparing for a life of meaningful participation in the living world.
We want to grow. More families in the Alentejo are looking for this kind of education. More children deserve to grow up knowing how to hold water in a landscape and hold conflict in a community.
What we'll do, over 18 months:
Expand student capacity from our current group to serve up to 25 children aged 4-14, with dedicated learning spaces for primary school ages (6-10)
Hire additional tutors skilled in project-based learning, ecology, and arts — bringing our adult-to-child ratio to 1:5
Launch a regenerative earth stewardship curriculum — weekly hands-on modules in water retention, soil building, native reforestation, animal husbandry, and food growing, taught on Tamera's living restoration sites
Organize field trips to regenerative projects across southern Portugal — visiting working farms, restoration sites, and cooperatives so children see regeneration as a living regional movement, not just something at home
Equip our learning spaces with Montessori materials, field tools, art supplies, and scientific observation equipment for project-based investigations
In two years, Escola da Esperança will be a proven model of home schooling as earth stewardship — a learning community where children's natural curiosity meets the most urgent knowledge of our time. And it will be open to more children who need it.
Funding Goals (all values in €)
First €10,000 — Shared between Classroom materials and learning equipment for project-based learning and field trip fund and curriculum development for regenerative earth stewardship
Next €20,000 — Student scholarships (reduced or waived contributions for 3-8 families)
Next €20,000 — Two additional Part-time tutors (2-5 days per week for 10 months per year)
All above €50,000 — More scholarships
Budget
Classroom Materials & Equipment
Montessori and self-directed learning materials — €2,000
Field tools for gardening, water retention, and restoration work — €1,500
Art supplies and theatre materials — €1,000
Scientific observation equipment (microscopes, field guides, magnifiers) — €500
Student Scholarships
Full scholarship (contribution waiver for one child, one year) — €2,000/child
Partial scholarship (50% contribution reduction) — €1,000/child
Target: support 4-6 children — €5,000 to €10,000
Additional Tutors
Part-time tutor (one day/week, 12 months, including preparation time and materials) — €8,000
Field Trips to Regenerative Projects
Transport and logistics — ~€300/trip
Visitor fees, materials, facilitator honorariums — ~€200/trip
Target: 6 field trips per year, 9 trips across 18 months — ~€4,500
Regenerative Earth Stewardship Curriculum
Curriculum design and documentation — €2,000
Guest expert honorariums (10 sessions at €150 each) — €1,500
More Reading
Project updates
Team
Escola da Esperança: educating young next-gen earth stewards
Portugal
Education, Community, ResilienceES
Escola da Esperança
Portugal
Nonprofit, Community GroupEscola da Esperança — the School of Hope — is a home schooling project rooted in the Tamera community in the Alentejo, Portugal. We are not a conventional school. We are a learning community where children grow up embedded in a living landscape of restoration, peace research, and hands-on discovery. Since 2018, we have run a community-based learning space for children aged 4 to 14 from families at Tamera and the surrounding region. Our approach combines Montessori-inspired open learning spaces, project-based teaching, and direct immersion in real-world work — gardening, water retention, animal care, theatre, and travel. Children learn by doing, alongside adults who are actively building a regenerative culture. As part of the wider Vale da Gema Headwaters Consortium, our immediate work is to expand this home schooling model so more children can grow up knowing how to care for soil, water, and community.
Project story
Children at Escola da Esperança don't just learn about ecosystems — they grow up inside one. Their classroom is Tamera's Water Retention Landscape: 150 hectares of restored swales, ponds, and oak forests where water has returned to dry land. They plant trees. They feed animals. They walk the swales and understand, from age five, what a check dam does and why it matters.
This is what education for regenerative earth stewardship looks like. But right now, we can only offer it to a handful of families.
We are a home schooling project — a learning community of parents, tutors, and children who have chosen to educate differently. Our model works: open learning spaces for self-directed discovery, project-based immersion in real work, and regular contact with experts in ecology, peace research, and the arts. Children prepare for Portuguese equivalence exams while also preparing for a life of meaningful participation in the living world.
We want to grow. More families in the Alentejo are looking for this kind of education. More children deserve to grow up knowing how to hold water in a landscape and hold conflict in a community.
What we'll do, over 18 months:
Expand student capacity from our current group to serve up to 25 children aged 4-14, with dedicated learning spaces for primary school ages (6-10)
Hire additional tutors skilled in project-based learning, ecology, and arts — bringing our adult-to-child ratio to 1:5
Launch a regenerative earth stewardship curriculum — weekly hands-on modules in water retention, soil building, native reforestation, animal husbandry, and food growing, taught on Tamera's living restoration sites
Organize field trips to regenerative projects across southern Portugal — visiting working farms, restoration sites, and cooperatives so children see regeneration as a living regional movement, not just something at home
Equip our learning spaces with Montessori materials, field tools, art supplies, and scientific observation equipment for project-based investigations
In two years, Escola da Esperança will be a proven model of home schooling as earth stewardship — a learning community where children's natural curiosity meets the most urgent knowledge of our time. And it will be open to more children who need it.
Funding Goals (all values in €)
First €10,000 — Shared between Classroom materials and learning equipment for project-based learning and field trip fund and curriculum development for regenerative earth stewardship
Next €20,000 — Student scholarships (reduced or waived contributions for 3-8 families)
Next €20,000 — Two additional Part-time tutors (2-5 days per week for 10 months per year)
All above €50,000 — More scholarships
Budget
Classroom Materials & Equipment
Montessori and self-directed learning materials — €2,000
Field tools for gardening, water retention, and restoration work — €1,500
Art supplies and theatre materials — €1,000
Scientific observation equipment (microscopes, field guides, magnifiers) — €500
Student Scholarships
Full scholarship (contribution waiver for one child, one year) — €2,000/child
Partial scholarship (50% contribution reduction) — €1,000/child
Target: support 4-6 children — €5,000 to €10,000
Additional Tutors
Part-time tutor (one day/week, 12 months, including preparation time and materials) — €8,000
Field Trips to Regenerative Projects
Transport and logistics — ~€300/trip
Visitor fees, materials, facilitator honorariums — ~€200/trip
Target: 6 field trips per year, 9 trips across 18 months — ~€4,500
Regenerative Earth Stewardship Curriculum
Curriculum design and documentation — €2,000
Guest expert honorariums (10 sessions at €150 each) — €1,500
More Reading
Project updates
Team
Location
Portugal