Climate Action Costa Rica Project #14307

Nature solutions for Community development

by Corcovado Foundation

Nature solutions for Community development

Project Report | Nov 27, 2018
"Idle hands are the devil's workshop"

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

Children learning as they play

Most children in Costa Rica have been absent from school since September. A government general strike deescalated later only to schools and high schools. Almost 1 million children and teenagers are supposed to be in school, but instead they are sitting at home, watching TV at best. This is the same situation for schools in the Osa Peninsula, but worse. Kids in the Osa Peninsula were already behind the general education standard. Many teachers in these schools are often absent for personal reasons or weather limitations, leaving the kids with 4 or 3 days of school, instead of the 5 normal days. Now, they have no school at all.

Unfortunately, these children are the ones that need a good school the most. They lack educational opportunities: there are no museums, libraries or theaters around, and their parents cannot complement the absence of education, because they also had limited access to it.

Students who frequently miss school are less likely to adopt the behaviors and social norms that employers, colleges and law enforcement may expect, experts say. https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/long-term-consequences-of-missing-school/498599/. “Absence is often associated with low supervision … and alienation or detachment from conventional institutions,” said Patrick H. Tolan, the director of Youth-Nex, a center at the University of Virginia that conducts research on factors influencing youth development.

Our organization has been working hard to help mitigate the impact of this void left by education. \

While we could, we reached 103 students in 5 schools to talk about plants and trees.

After the schools definitely closed, we held 4 activities with 40 kids to talk about local fauna and to study the trap cameras that we located on a nearby property. We have also held 42 environmental workshops with 40 kids to talk about solid waste, ecosystems, seaturtles.
We also had three whale watching trips with 31 kids and 6 adults and we went camping with 11 kids from the community.

They say “fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum” or ”Idle hands are the devil 's workshop”. So, we are doing everything we can to keep these kids busy and stimulated! Thanks to you support, we are making this possible. Take a look at our facebook page to see pictures about the work we do with all these kids. https://www.facebook.com/funcorco/ and please keep supporting us @globalgiving.

Children learning about the forest

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Aug 30, 2018
"Changing the grownups around us!"

By Alejandra Monge and Helena Pita | Executive Director and Environmental Education Man

children after camping weekend

Greeting my friends, do you want to hear a story?

Once a upon a time there were two friends that went camping to the woods and decided to eat shrimps from the river for dinner. They went to the river and they threw poison to the river. Soon they were able to catch the shrimps which they ate for dinner and they went to sleep. The following day the boys picked up their belongings, but their all their trash scattered in the woods. The animals of the forest found all this and were sad. The macaw flew from the heavens and told them that she had seen humans recycling some where else and that she could teach the animals so that they could all clean the mess. The boys came back to the place to pick up a flash light that they had left behind and saw the animals picking up the mess. The boys regretted having left that mess behind and decided that they could act differently. So they apologized to the animals and all together, they send a message to the world “Lets protect nature and lets recycle!”.

This story was written by the Jaguars Youth Group, one of the Corcovado Foundation Groups that meet weekly to learn about the importance of conservation. The group participated in the Arts Festival, and as part of their participation they wrote and performed this story. They wrote the whole story on their own and adapted it to a play. They prepared their costumes and the setting in order to participate on the festival. Mostly they were eager to give their community a message: we need to protect our environment and we need to recycle.

Our environmental education program has been creating awareness among children in the Osa Peninsula since 2003. Right now, we are visiting 6 schools monthly bringing environmental education to 200 children. We also have 4 youth groups, including the Jaguars, which meet every week to talk about conservation efforts and perform environmental activities in their communities. Their activities can be community clean ups, beach clean ups, making signs to educate their communities, teaching other children about conservation, among others. These groups are very important for these kids, since these are the only extracurricular activities these kids have available in their communities. Besides, our environmental educators provide a vital job as role models and counselors to these kids.

By supporting our efforts, you are helping us maintain our environmental education program active and these kids engaged. Thank you!

Children practicing for their show

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Jul 5, 2018
June has been great!!

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

Children working on their costumes

Dear friends of the Corcovado Foundation

Today we want to thank all our supporters and donors! Your generosity and the generosity of people like you from all over the world has been key to maintaining our programs alive. And we have been busy making the most of your financial support!

June was a busy month! Our environmental educators have been busy preparing the local children for their presentation at the Arts Festival. The kids wrote the script and produced a play related to the impact of humans upon ecosystems and how we can all change that. The Children worked tirelessly to get ready for their presentation in June. They are hopeful that they can win the art contest with they can bring their message to their communities.

Our team has also been working with the Osa Chamber of Tourism in their Osa Free of Plastic Campaign. Our organization designed the objectives and activities related to this campaign and now we are trying to support the chamber to disseminate the information amongst schools and businesses. A couple of weeks ago we had a big event presenting the campaign to the Minister of Tourism. During the activity we donated educational materials to a local school and planted trees.

The same week we held a TRAILS DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION WORKSHOP for the communities in La Amistad Conservation Area. Communities here join forces with parkrangers to protect the national park, they work on the fire brigade and help build trails. This area is waiting for tourism to come to discover it and we want the communities and the park rangers to work together to maintain it as beautiful and as pristine as it is now. The area is a wonderful place for hiking and trekking. You should check it out!

The following week we worked with the same community helping them to build capacity. 26 women and men are learning about accounting principles and business management, so that they can make a better management of their projects and they can thrive economically and socially. Healthy communities are key to promote sustainable development.

We continue working with our environmental education program. There is so much going on! Classes in several different schools and exciting activities with local children groups have filled our weeks, keeping our environmental educators busy. Last week we celebrated our resident bird’s festival. Children were busy designing their bird’s masks and preparing presentations to show their parents about the importance of protecting local birds. These children are taking in their hands to educate their parents.

We have also been preparing for our sea turtle conservation program in Rincon, which started on July 01^st with the first 4 volunteers arriving on Monday! Time to start digging our new sea turtle nursery! We are so excited.

It has been a very eventful month. But that is how we like it. We are grateful to be able to help children and families become more aware, more productive, more committed and more organized. We were only able to achieve this with your help. Please consider becoming a recurring donor to helps maintain our efforts and plan from financial perspective our future endeavors.

Thank you!

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