Trans4m Junior Fellow Anne Sophie Koehn arrives at Sinal do Vale, Brazil

Anne Sophie Koehn, graduate of the University of St. Gallen and Trans4m Junior Fellow, has joined Sinal do Vale, an integral partner organisation of Trans4m, dedicating herself for a year to a leading development project in the state of Bahia. 

Anne Sophie Koehn began her stay at Sinal do Vale, who’s founder Thais Corral has invited her to come to Brazil to help in surfacing the integral components of Adapta Sertāo, a major development project in Brazil’s state of Bahia. That project includes the formation of an institute.

As a first step, Anne Sophie, will get acquainted with the Sinal do Vale community, near Rio de Janeiro, where she will stay for the first two months, before moving on to Bahia.

Here are the opening impressions from her first week:

It has now been a week that I arrived in a magical place lost in the middle of the Mata Atlantica about one hour away from Rio de Janeiro and its craziness. After passing through a little Brazilian village and taking an extremely steep and winding route up in the forest, I discovered SINAL do Vale. A few small houses surrounded by organic gardens, little farms and the pure beauty of nature.

In a week I discovered and learned many new things. I helped to pick some vegetables from the garden, cut bamboo trees, cooked delicious and healthy food with the aid of a Brazilian nutritionist, painted a sustainable building made of bamboos, helped during an event with the local community, and assisted to a class of gardening at the local school.

SINAL do Vale has a holistic approach to sustainable development. It goes from reforestation to recycling through teaching kids at school how to garden but also giving healthy cooking tips, etc. Building resilient communities ask for constant efforts in a lot of different areas of everyday life. SINAL is, on the one hand, a little village at the top of the mountain where I and the other volunteers as well as employees live but is on the other hand also very implanted in the local life. SINAL organizes events but also gives classes in the local school, and every volunteer or worker is ready to answer questions of the locals when we go to the little village located 2.5km away. The villagers know everyone at SINAL and welcomed me as well.

The first week was intense since I had to adapt quickly to a fully new context but it was easily done. Everyone is extremely friendly, and you immediately belong part of the community. I am extremely grateful for having this fantastic opportunity. I will stay in SINAL do Vale until the end of September. The goal is to help on different projects here but also get a better idea of the other project on which I am going to work. In October I will move to the state of Bahia and the region of Sertāo. I will work there with the organization called Adapta Sertāo and will help in the creation process of an institute. I will learn more about it in the next weeks. Underneath a couple of visual impressions of some of the community activities I participated in, and of the breathtaking nature surrounding Sinal do Vale.”

 

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