How was NOSSO born?
The NOSSO movement for well-being in Brazil was conceived by Carolina Fernandes Lemos Bonin, its founder, while searching for the big question, "What does Brazil need to turn the tide and prosper?" While still in Germany, Carolina held meetings with other Brazilians in her home to share and refine her ideas, from which emerged the values that would later form the foundation of everything that is part of NOSSO, which we call PILLARS:
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be a protagonist
for the material and mental decolonization
Developing Brazilian vitality involves breaking free from colonialism to affirm our identities and foster our nation's growth. The foundation for this construction lies in teaching and learning in Brazil what enhances and celebrates our potential, while valuing our culture, knowledge, and technology. Therefore, "Education and Training" are our driving force. Using our collective originality to define rituals and routines, but also to understand and reconstruct our structures and institutions, elevating what is OURS.
for the appreciation of life
Supporting the construction of preventive, comprehensive, and accessible healthcare that preserves and fosters the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of the population. Valuing people in a tangible way, ensuring a healthy, beautiful, and playful early childhood, a fulfilling adult life with conditions and space for education and living, and a dignified old age, whose role is valued in society. Advocating for urban revitalization so that nature becomes an integral part of wherever we are, valuing the aesthetics and beauty of the arts to awaken our creativity and willingness to contribute.
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comprehensive health
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love for others
OUR rescue of Equality
Building equal opportunities in our Brazil by taking actions that re-establish the same starting point for everyone, to create a constant collective and individual well-being. We want to make knowledge and the application of all rights provided for in our Constitution, the highest law in Brazil, come alive, empowering every Brazilian to decide how to steer their lives outside the confines of power. The equal right to well-being encompasses, for us, the Environment, being built through empathy with all beings.
Basic Rights Garantee
Basic rights are the foundation of our freedom. We want to ensure, along with other programs, water autonomy; sanitation with cheap, scalable, and community-based social technologies; food sovereignty and education, with local production and processing; land use and housing aimed at common well-being. All respecting the relationships they come from, being built sustainably and adapted to the diverse regions of Brazil. NOSSO also supports digital inclusion actions, as it is a key piece of education that leads to popular autonomy.
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Sovereignty to live
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collective abundance
OUR Well-Being
We believe in building a collective consciousness within the culture of Well-Being, where individual and collective responsibility coexist. It is from local wisdom that solutions are built, valuing local activities and technologies and Life instead of accumulation; seeing Nature and all beings as equal subjects, entitled to the same rights to health and well-being; finding abundance in genuine happiness that involves the collective, family, and the individual themselves, from early childhood to old age.
Collective consciousness for
living in harmony.
Humanized systems can revitalize Brazil. A renewed social coexistence, without hierarchies, accessible to all, with representation of our identities, with simple, collective, open, and inclusive management. A coexistence for Good Living, which functions through cooperation between the State, private sector, and local groups, and where only "Alumiança" is exercised as a form of constructive leadership, aiming at collective well-being plans in accordance with the priorities of the localities themselves. A collective coexistence is one that engages everyone on a daily basis to build living well and the flourishing of every corner of our Motherland Brazil.
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Reviving the coexistence of Well-Being.
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Entrepreneurship to nurture
autonomy through collective educations
Groundwork is the path to building change through collaboration among people who want to make structural transformations. Recreating our Good Living (Bem Viver) in everyday life through innovations that build a welcoming system, valuing all forms of life, in which every individual enjoys freedom and power of choice, and recognizes their participatory value within society.
Transparency generates Love with Action
We see leaders in the role of facilitators to collaborate and build together with society in a focused manner to implement 'Good Living' and pave the way for the well-being and harmony of all. Transparency enhances the level of collaboration among people. With it, it becomes easy to know where to fit our potentialities to collaborate. Easy access to things and clarity ensure that everything is understood by everyone. Simplicity is efficiency implemented through the sustainability of our resources. Distributed and regenerative systems help us multiply fruits without damaging. Digital inclusion is essential for creating visibility.
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Alumiança

At the end of 2019, Carolina returned to Brazil with the goal of embarking on a two-year pilgrimage across the country to spread the values of the pillars and work cooperatively with the diverse communities and groups in our country. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began three months after her arrival, all plans had to adapt. Carolina then created the Instagram channel @nossobrasil_org with the aim of discussing the themes of OUR Pillars and began to interview people and groups who were either already carrying out incredible socio-economic-environmental transformation work in Brazil, or who were individuals who could discuss topics, subjects, and reconstructions of ideas and important aspects to answer the same previous question "What does Brazil need to turn the key and prosper as a country?".
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This is when OUR NETWORK began to form, and we realized that there are many communities and groups throughout Brazil that, with small financial contributions (the so-called seed funding) and quality professional support, could make significant changes, leveraging this much dreamed revitalization of our beloved Motherland Brazil. That's when we began our individual support work completely voluntarily for these groups and communities and had the desire to transform OUR movement for well-being in Brazil into a non-profit civil society organization (NGO) so that we could count on the material and intellectual support of more people, organizations, and companies.
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Gradually, new people joined the team, which then formed OUR first Statutory Executive Board: Rodrigo Fernandes Lemos Bonin currently represents our Fiscal Council, Viviane Lima Ferreira currently represents our Treasury, and Patrícia Castiglione Queiroz do Valle Larica currently represents our Secretary. We also began to count on the support of many volunteers who, little by little, contributed to the realization of our organization.

OUR MISSION
It's about rebuilding well-being for everyone in Brazil: in their cities, neighborhoods, and communities, constructing it through education and action grounded in love and well-being, so that each individual learns to reclaim their place as protagonists in society, giving life to collective self-management, placing the population side by side with local management and enterprises, fostering the potential of each region of Brazil.
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Our inspiration comes from indigenous wisdom, SUMAK KAWSAY, which is based on balance, harmony, and coexistence among beings: the harmony and interdependence between the individual and themselves, between the individual and society, and between society and the planet with all its inhabitants from all realms, mineral, vegetable, and animal.
Meet OUR team
Dedication, Experience and Love for what we do.
Since the founding of the movement and subsequently the NGO, our team of volunteers has been growing organically through individuals who have the desire in their hearts to build with a lot of "Amoração" (love + action) for a better well-being in OUR Brazil. Come get to know a little more about these incredible professionals and join the team as a volunteer or partner!

Founder and CEO of NOSSO
​Carolina Fernandes
Brazilian, woman, LGBTQIA+, born in Campinas/SP. She lived in the USA in 2006 and in Berlin, Germany, until 2019. She is a meditation teacher, poet, sociopolitical activist, and international ambassador for human rights and diversity. She has spoken to young leaders from 193 countries at conferences in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. With a background in Computer Engineering and a Master's in Co-Design, she is also trained in Systemic and Transpersonal Psychotherapy. She worked for over 10 years as a project manager, leading teams and products in multinational companies in the digital field. She has accumulated knowledge and experience as a psychotherapist and consultant in HR and social investment projects. Today, she works as a business mentor, assisting entrepreneurs and their teams in the development and continuous improvement of their businesses, bringing an innovative, more human, and sustainable approach through ESG practices.

Secretary of NOSSO
Silvana Ap. Bianchini
Brazilian, born in Espírito Santo do Pinhal in the state of São Paulo. Mother of two daughters and grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren. Currently residing in the city of Mogi-Mirim, also in the state of São Paulo. She holds a degree in Business Administration and currently works as a Municipal Public Servant in the financial and treasury area. She is a Spiritist and also volunteers as a Reiki therapist, as well as serving as Secretary and being part of the Board at NOSSO.

Tax Adviser at NOSSO
Rodrigo Bonin
Brazilian, heterosexual male, born in Campinas/SP, with experiences in various cities across Brazil throughout his education and professional career. He graduated in Production Engineering from USP, completing his undergraduate studies in São Carlos/SP. He had a brief work experience in Berlin, Germany, and after graduating, he worked for large multinational companies in Campinas/SP, Poços de Caldas/MG, and currently in São Paulo/SP. He specializes in Lean Manufacturing and Finance and Controlling, the main areas in which he continues to work professionally. He is passionate about improving things, and what drives him are opportunities for learning and for doing meaningful work, wherever he is. In addition to his corporate work, Rodrigo also dedicates part of his time as a voluntary Fiscal Counselor for NOSSO.

Volunteer at NOSSO
Patricia Larica
Born in Rio de Janeiro, graduated in Industrial Design from UERJ, she worked in Design agencies until 2007 when she began her international career with Procter & Gamble. She lived in Venezuela and Chile and traveled to almost every country in South America and the United States. In 2011, she worked as Creative Director in leading agencies in the market. In 2016, she went through an intense process of internal redefinition when she decided to completely change her life and live aboard a sailboat in a minimalist and purposeful way among the elements of Nature, sailing and taking care of the maintenance of a 32-foot sailboat, the Brave, alone. Today, with her sailing companion Sérgio Pinheiro, she works bringing people aboard for experiences of reconnection with natural cycles and learning about ocean conservation, resource optimization, low-impact living, and the economy of sufficiency.

Volunteer at NOSSO
Leandro Silva
Born in Brazil, graduated in Law and specialized in Entertainment Law, he has always worked for multinational consumer goods companies. In 2018, he left the country for a sabbatical and underwent a career change, becoming a photographer. He specialized in studio photography, works for a large environmentally conscious consumer company in Germany, and volunteers for NOSSO by providing audiovisual education to the groups involved in ongoing projects. Through quality images and media, he helps them achieve continuous improvement in their cause-driven businesses and generate financial sustainability.

Volunteer at NOSSO
Fernanda T. Fonseca
Brazilian, lawyer, specialized in Business Law with additional training in Startup Law. She worked for large financial institutions in Brazil, primarily in Corporate Law and Corporate Governance. In 2018, she moved to Europe, living in Portugal and Germany. It was the experience as an immigrant that allowed her to see Brazil with a newfound admiration, which made her love her land and roots, valuing everything her country has to offer. She volunteers for NOSSO, primarily assisting with legal issues related to grassroots entrepreneurship and access to justice.

Volunteer at NOSSO
Felipe Ap. Garcia de Lima
Brazilian, married, father of Hugo and Jorge. With experience in sales and interpersonal relationships, he began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 25 by founding AZL Flexible Packaging. In 2020, due to the pandemic and the birth of Hugo, he chose to step away from the company. The following year, in 2021, he became a partner at LIRAT, where he is focused on understanding the processes and viability of the business, facing challenges with enthusiasm. In addition to his professional activities, he has a strong interest in human development and spirituality. He sees in NOSSO an opportunity to promote essential values, such as empathy and humanity in their fullest form.

Volunteer at NOSSO
Monica Sanches Piaia
Brazilian, female, born in São Bernardo do Campo in the state of São Paulo. From 2001 to 2006, she lived in Strasbourg, France, where she developed her doctoral project in Condensed Matter Physics. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics and a degree in English Language Teaching, as well as an MBA in School Management. Since 2008, she has been working as a teacher of English and Physics for students aged 10 to 15 (Middle School). Through NOSSO, she provides English classes to communities, especially those focused on the development of community, ecological, and sustainable tourism.
