Hi, I am Hans (56), originally from The Netherlands and now since 2021 living and working together with my Brasilian wife Sunamita, in the south of rural Portugal.

We moved here together after a very difficult time of Long Distance relationship during Covid: she in Brasil and me in Holland. Luckily, I bought our farm in Portugal a couple of years before, with the idea to start a business related to business retreats and coaching. However, actually making the step to move here was complicated, until Covid. Then, I could still earn money as a consultant online with assignments in The Netherlands, while at the same time building a new business in Portugal. With the biiiiiig advantage, that Sunamita and I could move together in Portugal.

That was the plan, and partly it worked that way. However, when we really moved in here, we became aware of the challenges the region is facing. We are based in the Alentejo, between the Algarve and Lisbon, and it is a province as big as Belgium. However, with 17 inhabitants per km2, it is very thinly populated. That is, by the way, also part of its attractiveness: it is calm, it is wide, there is a lót of nature.

But it is also part of its challenge: the Alentejo, together with the Extremadura, are part of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly threatened by desertification. Because of the changing climate, the soil deteriorates, which is fastened by the agricultural treatment of the soil. In other words, the land produces less and less, and because of this, the economic power of the region diminishes. As a consequence, business close up and the perspectives for people are dwindling. reason for youngsters to move to big cities or leave the country.

All this, we became aware of when we moved here, and when we started talking to people (the average age, by the way, of farmers in our region now is 67). And that is when we decided to try to make a positive change here, and to see if we could manage to help revitalize our region, in ecological ways, but also in social and economical ways.