About
What moves us, how we work and who we work with.
Our purpose
According to its statutes, Várzeapoética promotes educational, training and leisure projects for the integral development of the individual and the group, as well as cultural and artistic events that serve human development.
In practice, this means trainings, workshops and international encounters in which writing, walking, nature and shared cooking become learning spaces.
Why we exist
I founded these associations to give my work a suitable framework. My aim is to make health prevention easier to access: through a clear understanding of healthy living and eating, and through the Yin-Yang principle as a tool for recognising situations and judging them independently.
The Yin-Yang principle does not judge. It knows no good or bad, no right or wrong, but orders things by qualities such as warm and cold, expanding and contracting. That is exactly why it strengthens independence and the ability to make decisions, without dogma. I am convinced that everyone has the right to a self-determined life in which they take responsibility for themselves. Our courses are meant to contribute to that.
The associations see themselves as a platform for healthy living, personal development, encounter and exchange between people, nations and cultures in Europe. For more than ten years I saw in my seminar centre in France how well this approach is received. A similar centre in Portugal remains my long-term goal. Until then, the associations carry this work forward.
I am grateful that Erasmus+ makes this work possible. The programme creates a network through which people with fewer opportunities in particular gain access to learning and support.
How we work
Voluntary and low-threshold. Nobody has to share anything personal to take part, and any exercise can be skipped. Our methods are open to people without prior knowledge or Erasmus+ experience.
With clear boundaries. We work as non-formal education. We make no diagnoses, offer no therapy and promise no cure. When someone needs more support, we refer them to professional services.
With care and safety. Outdoors, safety comes first: routes adapted to the group, named contact persons, and plans for weather and terrain. We publish photos, quotes and personal stories only with consent.
Transparent. What our members did before the association was founded is presented as their personal experience, not as projects of the association.
Network
Origó Műhely Nonprofit Kft (Hungary) has trained youth workers internationally since 2021 and holds an Erasmus+ accreditation in the field of youth. It is a partner in “The Nature of Poetry”. theorigoworkshop.com
Dialektika – Panta Rhei e.V. (Germany) and Unio contrariorium (Austria) are sister associations with the same founder and related aims.
Association details
- Name
- Várzeapoética – Associação
- Legal form
- Non-profit association under Portuguese law
- Founded
- 12 November 2025, Lisbon
- Seat
- Rua Coronel Santos Pedroso 13, 9.º D, Benfica, Lisbon
- NIPC
- 519 017 790
- Erasmus+
- Organisation ID (OID) E10439147
- Board
- Axel Bergdolt (president), Zsuzsanna Juhász (vice-president), Lua Estrela Bergdolt (secretary); all positions unpaid