Associação Nascentes de Luz

Associação Nascentes de Luz is a non-profit family support association in Maceira, Leiria, founded in 2010 and with around 200 members. Since 2012 it has been developing a permaculture project designed by landscape architect Eunice Neves. The design combines landscape architecture and permaculture, with the aim of creating a model space for a sustainable future. In 2013 the project was taken further with a two-week Permaculture Design Course (PDC), taught in English and attended by more than 30 participants. Since then the community has put the design in place step by step. It has traced paths, built vegetable gardens near the main house and introduced syntropic regenerative agriculture, planting trees, shrubs and a variety of other vegetation for biomass. The association has built points for collecting and distributing rainwater. A communal fountain, the "Fonte de Siloé", is under construction. Volunteers and local partners helped restore an old well-house, and those partners include the Junta de Freguesia da Maceira and various local businesses that support the association. Each year Nascentes de Luz holds a community gathering, the Festa das Famílias. It recently opened "Escuta o Silêncio", a quiet space for contemplation. On Wednesdays volunteers can join the gardening group and learn syntropic agro-gardening techniques. The association has strong social and spiritual roots. Its mission is the integral well-being and ecological development of the human person, in relationship with themselves, others and nature, guided by cooperation, respect, sustainability and spirituality. On the land it follows the permaculture principles of caring for the earth, caring for people, and sharing knowledge and resources.