Escola da Esperança: educating young next-gen earth stewards

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

• Escola da Esperança
• How We Learn — Escola da Esperança
• Tamera — Peace Research & Education Center
• Tamera's Water Retention Landscape