In the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, Brazil, women are cultivating medicinal plants in community gardens, creating spaces that promote health, social connection and environmental care.
The women-led Agroecological Peripheral Female Urban Farmers Network of São Paulo (RAPPA) is playing a key role in improving access to alternative health solutions by expanding medicinal plant cultivation in Indigenous communities through trainings and knowledge exchanges.
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), operating under the Brazilian Ministry of Health, made a fund of R$ 40,000 available to RAPPA for this work. RAPPA used this funding to develop trainings on medicinal plants, something they had wanted to do since establishing the organisation in 2018. One training involved university and technical teachers, while another involved peer-to-peer learning and exchanges. The latter, organised in March 2025, had a more ‘traditional’ approach to knowledge and included exchanges with Indigenous groups. With another part of the funds, nine women from RAPPA further developed their gardens.
A repertoire of care
The women acquired a repertoire of knowledge and skills for self-care (via herbal teas, ointments and tinctures for example) that they also made available to their families and communities. “I came back renewed from this course. It was spiritually incredible. We returned to our gardens more motivated, and that’s why we decided to use the funds to build a nursery and produce our own seedlings,” said Dani Camboim from RAPPA.
Dona Ale from RAPPA agreed: “The course was very good – we learned a lot about how to plant the herbs, use them, and even eat them. We talked with the collective and decided that we need a bathroom in the garden. The funds will be used for that.”
The women acquired a repertoire of knowledge and skills for self-care that they also made available to others
Many people on the outskirts of São Paulo don’t have access to spaces for self-care, so the gardens have become very important. Women often arrive in the gardens feeling nervous, sad or anxious, but find a safe and calming space to talk, have tea, and feel the earth.
These gardens are essential for women, many of whom carry a heavy mental load. This comes on the one hand from the gendered division of labour, and on the other hand from the double burden of working as farmers (many of the women also have other jobs, such as cooking, cleaning or teaching) and caretakers of their families (including grandchildren and other members of the family). So self-care is a way for them to feel good about themselves.
They reflected:
“It’s meaningful to care for the land, but we are also the land.”
“I’ve gained more visibility and have started speaking up more in my community.”
“I come to RAPPA to catch my breath. It’s a space that gives women a voice.”
“We’ve learned to care for each other, which makes us stronger.”
The women strengthened their agroecological practices through an integrated approach to health and sustainability, grounded in Brazil’s cultural and territorial diversity. This was based on the notion that women’s care practices extend beyond their families to the broader community, creating spaces where health and healing are understood as collective and ecological processes. The courses and the funds enabled the women to consider future investments.
Sustaining life
Women have long taken on the responsibility of sustaining life, not only through reproductive work but also through care for their communities and the environment. Their work with medicinal plants and community gardens demonstrates how agroecology can be a tool for healing and empowerment, strengthening the social fabric and building pathways toward greater autonomy and wellbeing. By cultivating medicinal plants in the gardens, women reclaim control over their health and foster resilience in communities facing systemic inequalities in health care, food security, and housing.
Future efforts will focus on expanding training opportunities, reinforcing networks, and promoting urban agroecology as a model for health and food security. The collective action of women farmers highlights how the sustainability of life can emerge from local solutions, mutual support and the integration of traditional and agroecological knowledge.
Authors: Clara Ribeiro Camargo is responsible for network articulation at RAPPA; she has a PhD from the University of São Paulo. Laura Martins de Carvalho is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Studies on Urbanization for Knowledge and Innovation (CEUCI) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Márcia Tait Lima is associate professor at the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain. Karina dos Santos Rodrigues is a social scientist at the Federal University of ABC and an urban farmer in Brazil. Aline Queiroz de Souza is an educator and environmental specialist at the Secretariat of Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics of São Paulo State. Contact: clara.r.camargo@gmail.com
This work is part of the project “Strengthening Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Networks and Health Promotion in Cities”, a collaborative initiative led by the Health and Agroecology Agenda of Fiocruz, the Brazilian Articulation for Agroecology (ANA), and the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA).
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This article is part of Issue 2-2025: Cultivating health and healing
