2025: A Year of New Discoveries
2025 was a year full of encounters, learning experiences, and those simple moments that bring us closer to nature, to each other, and to ourselves.
Each month, we planted new seeds, harvested stories, and celebrated the joy of learning together. Here are the highlights that marked this year at Associação Novas Descobertas.
2025 Figures at a Glance
Some of our main results
Scholarships
for the community, in all our programs
Educational Programs
offered
Participants
in all
our events
and activities
January and February
The Awakening of the Year
We started the year taking a deep breath and making room for the new. The new management team devoted itself to dreaming, refining strategies, and preparing for the arrival of spring. These were months of listening, aligning, and creating—the kind of invisible but essential work that gives strength and meaning to everything we do.
Guided by the New Discoveries methodology—experiential learning, genuine care, and community spirit—we laid the foundation for a whole year of meaningful, real-life experiences.
Current programs: Days at the Farm
March
Co-creating Learning Ecosystems
March arrived with hands on the ground and different cultures. The CES program brought eight international volunteers eager to help, learn, and be part of the community. Together, we prepared Campo do Vale to host the Ecosystem Regeneration Camp, a time to dive deep into the relationship between people and the land.
In the ERC – Ecosystem Regeneration Field program, in partnership with the MudValley Institute, we welcomed 20 participants from various countries, who explored topics such as regenerative agroforestry, wooded pastures, and healthy soils, always in an environment of sharing, collaboration, and practice.
It was a month in which the community felt stronger, more diverse, and more inspired.
Current programs: CES Volunteering, Days at the Farm, ERC, Open Day, New Discoveries Assembly
April
Planting Seeds
April brought movement and creativity.
In the Animator Training program, future educators experienced our methodology firsthand and discovered new ways to accompany groups with care and presence.
The Easter OTL filled Campo do Vale with curious children, hands in the dirt, stories invented on the grass, and lots of outdoor fun.
In the long-term volunteer program, two participants also began their learning experience, joining the team and bringing new energy to our community.
Current programs: CES Volunteering, Days on the Farm, Leadership Training, Easter OTL
May
School Month
In May, Campo do Vale did not stop for a single day.
We welcomed classes from preschool to 12th grade, each with their own pace, questions, and way of being. We talked about soil, water, biodiversity, collaboration—but above all, we experienced learning with our whole bodies, in direct contact with nature.
The team devoted themselves wholeheartedly to creating moments that would spark curiosity and a sense of responsibility.
This year, we reached around 940 students who took away with them a little more nature in their eyes.
Current programs: ND Volunteering, Days on the Farm
June, July, and August
Summer New Discoveries
The sunniest months of the year brought that special glow that only summer has.
In June, we held a Youth Exchange dedicated to Sensory Awareness, where young people from different countries explored ways to experience the world with greater presence. The activities also served to prepare summer camp counselors, who gained new tools to accompany groups with creativity and mindfulness.
Throughout the summer, we hosted: 6 summer camps and 4 weeks of daytime OTL.
There were weeks of art, music, games, walks, dives, stories, and endless little discoveries that make you grow inside.
Each child took with them memories of community, nature, and freedom.
Current programs: CES Volunteering, ND Volunteering, Erasmus+ Youth Camp, ND Summer Camps, Summer OTL
September
Growing in Community
September brought back the CES – Team Volunteering program, with eight volunteers dedicated to creating a new educational space: the composting area, which is now an outdoor classroom for the school program.
Together with the Novas Descobertas team, they built, planted, created paths, and strengthened the space that will welcome so many children in the coming years.
In addition, we visited friendly lands to support regenerative actions—a way to help in times when fires have taken away the lands of partners/friends.
Current programs: ND Summer Camp, CES Volunteering
October
Permaculture in Action
In October, we delved deep into the land and ideas.
The Permaculture Design Course brought together interns and volunteers in a practical, reflective, and collaborative experience, where theory and practice came together to transform space and thinking.
It was a month where curiosity became a tool and where everyone contributed to designing more regenerative ways of living and learning.
Current programs: CES Volunteering, Days on the Farm, PDC
November
Gathering Lessons and Dreaming of the Future
November was a month for looking back, assessing the path we have traveled, and calmly and purposefully preparing what we want to cultivate in 2026. We hosted another residential ERC, similar to what happened in the spring—a profound gathering of people dedicated to the regeneration of ecosystems, where lively, practical, and heartfelt learning took place once again. Between evaluations and dialogues, November gave us space to refine our vision, strengthen our team, and choose, with greater clarity, the seeds we want to take with us into the next year.
Current programs: CES Volunteering, Days on the Farm, ERC, New Discoveries Assembly
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