A Local Story That Reached the Other Side of the World

The book Forever Vilarinho da Furna, written by Luciana Castelli, was born from a very special challenge: telling the story of Vilarinho da Furna to a children’s and young adult audience.

According to the author herself, this was a particularly challenging project, since she had never written for children before. The result was a work with simple, accessible and engaging language, yet profoundly rich in feelings, memories and human values. Through its pages, new generations are invited to discover the history of the communal village of Vilarinho da Furna, preserving the collective memory of a unique heritage of Portuguese culture.

One of the most distinctive aspects of the work is the authenticity of its illustrations. The drawings were developed based on real photographs taken by Luciana Castelli and Professor Manuel Antunes, PhD, contributing to a faithful representation of the places, landscapes and experiences that shaped the village’s history.

Without major initial ambitions, the project ended up achieving recognition of enormous relevance by being awarded an Honourable Mention at the Fernando Pereira National Environment Award 2023. The award ceremony took place at Casa do Alentejo, in Lisbon, bringing together various entities and figures linked to the fields of environment, heritage and citizenship. The award, promoted by the Portuguese Association for Environmental Education (ASPEA) and granted as part of the distinctions organised annually by the Portuguese Confederation of Environmental Defence Associations (CPADA), recognised the work’s contribution to the preservation of collective memory, the promotion of cultural heritage, and raising awareness among new generations about the importance of identity, community and the relationship between people and territory.

OMNI played a decisive role in every phase of the project, ensuring support and coordination from its conception, editorial development and graphic production, through to the printing of the work.

More recently, the project gained an international dimension through a unique opportunity for closer ties between Portugal and China, with the Macau Special Administrative Region as its starting point. In this context, OMNI supported and coordinated the full translation of the work into Simplified Chinese, as well as its printing, allowing the story of Vilarinho da Furna to reach new readers and different cultural contexts.

A particularly symbolic moment in this journey occurred when the first copy of the Simplified Chinese edition was personally delivered to the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Portugal, Yang Yirui. The handover took place at Póvoa de Lanhoso Town Hall, during the Ambassador’s official visit to the municipality, at the invitation of the Mayor, Frederico de Oliveira Castro. This milestone represented not only institutional recognition of the work, but also the opening of new cultural bridges between Portugal and China, reinforcing the ability of a local project to achieve an international dimension. The choice of Póvoa de Lanhoso for this moment also carries special significance, as it is home to OMNI’s official office in Portugal, the entity that supported and coordinated the entire internationalisation process of the work.

Today, Forever Vilarinho da Furna represents much more than a children’s book. It is an example of how the appreciation of local memory can cross borders, promoting intercultural dialogue, heritage preservation, and the building of bridges between peoples, generations and territories.

OMNI is proud to have accompanied this journey from the very first moment, and to continue supporting initiatives that transform local stories into universal heritage.