How we started
It all started with a shared meal in a national park.
In 2019, Sarah Nguyen and Sebastián Arriagada met by chance at a camp shelter in the then newly created Patagonia National Park. Sarah was traveling with purpose. Sebastián was backpacking in silence. Over a shared meal, they began talking about a territory they had both fallen in love with, how quickly it was changing, and what the region needed to grow sustainably.
That conversation turned into a journey of exploration. The journey led to a partnership with a rural school in Villa Cerro Castillo. Over the years, that partnership became the Renoval Foundation.
Why "Renoval"
RENOVAL
re·no·VAL, sm
The new growth that is cultivated in cleared land.
A regrowth is the forest that returns. The shoots that appear in a cleared area, when given time and the right conditions. That is what we sow together with the communities of Patagonia: a growth that continues, sustained by the community itself, long after our part is over.
Missions and values
We strengthen the ecological and economic sustainability of communities in Chilean Patagonia, with the permission, collaboration and empowerment of the people.
What guides us:
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Collaboration through dialogue and local permission.
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The infrastructure that enables self-sufficiency.
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Transformative environmental education, in contact with nature.
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A sacred ecology: the link between people and nature through traditional plant knowledge.
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Sustainable tourism as a way to build relationships with communities.
Our history
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2019. An exploration trip turns a chance encounter into a plan.
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2020. Punto Limpio (Clean Point), our first project, a recycling and environmental education program at the Cerro Castillo Rural Bicentennial High School.
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2021. Construction begins on the Huerta Verde Esperanza (Green Hope Garden), a name chosen by the students themselves.
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2022. The school forms its Environmental Committee to take care of the garden in the long term.
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2023 and 2024. The garden grows with a greenhouse, fences, composting, a medicinal plant garden and, with the support of Patagonia Inc., an outdoor classroom.
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2024. The SLEP Aysén formally incorporates agroecology into its curriculum.
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2026. Renoval signs a regional agreement with the SLEP Aysén and inaugurates the garden at the Aonikenk School, its second school garden, in Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez.
Our roots
Trek Relief is the origin of Fundación Renoval. Under the umbrella of this US-based non-profit organization, we took our first steps in Patagonia: the first trips, the first project, the first building of trust . In 2023, that work matured into our own Chilean foundation, with its own board of directors, field team, and programs.
Today we walk on our own, alongside Trek Relief, which remains our closest ally and renews its commitment each year to the Patagonia we care for together. We are, in the most literal sense of our name, the renewal that grew from that root.
The team
Transparency
Fundación Renoval is a Chilean non-profit foundation, established in 2023.
RUT: 65.140.829-6
Legal address: Puerto Guadal Lot A-15, Chile Chico commune, General Carrera Province, Aysén Region of General Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, 6010000, Chile
For international donors, Trek Relief (EIN 81-5114205), a 501(c)(3) organization in the United States, acts as the fiscal sponsor of our international fundraising.
Questions about our governance? Write to us at hola@renoval.org .