In the late 1980s and 1990s the Associação Monte Carmelo was formed as a community of educators, families, their children, and support staff forming a social and economic development non-governmental organization by the Ayvazian family who donated an 84000 meters square rural property they owned near Porto Feliz to the Baháʼí community so that it might be used to serve the needs of Porto Feliz and its vicinity.