Climate Action Costa Rica Project #14307

Nature solutions for Community development

by Corcovado Foundation

Nature solutions for Community development

Project Report | Aug 2, 2016
Save our Environmental Education Program

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

The Corcovado Foundation environmental education program has been active in the South Pacific of Costa Rica for 13 years. Sadly, due to lack of funds we may be forced to close the program unless we can raise $55,000 before the beginning of 2017.

Over the years, our environmental education program has successfully engaged with 441 Costa Rican primary school children in 22 schools. 1200 textbooks have been distributed all around the country and our hard-working educators have developed a complete curriculum of environmental education both inside and outside of school.

We believe that continuing this work is vital for the future protection of Costa Rica’s rich biodiversity and the improvement of opportunities for our children. Over the last decade, we have seen kids become excited about and proud of the natural world that they live in. We have seen their faces light up on excursions to Corcovado National Park and the Gulfo Dulce Marine Reserve- experiences that are generally only affordable for foreigners.

Our five after school activity groups have nurtured creativity and instilled a deep sense of community in our students. Using art and craft projects, games, plays and much more we have helped the next generation to understand the true value of Costa Rica’s natural resources- while having lots of fun together. In fact, these after school groups are so popular that most kids will arrive half an hour early- something which doesn’t happen often in this country!

In our formal lessons, we have covered all manner of topics including reforestation, sea turtle conservation, waste and recycling, ecosystems and bird migration. All with a focus on protecting the staggering number of species of mammals, birds and insects in the Osa Peninsula for future generations.

In the rural communities where we work, many schools simply do not have the funds to teach an environmental education class. If we are unable to continue our program, hundreds of kids will no longer have access to up-to-date textbooks, after school activities, excursion days or art supplies.

Please, we urge you to give whatever you can and forward this update to friends and family.

Thank you for your support!

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May 3, 2016
Conservation through Artistic Expression.

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

The last three months has been a very busy time for the Corcovado Foundation’s environmental education program. Last year, our educators were working in eleven small public schools around the Osa Peninsula. Today we have expanded to 22 schools all along the South Pacific Coast which means that 441 children now attend our classes!

Most recently, we visited the village of Rancho Quemado and worked with kids and community members to create an adorable short film called “The path you choose is only up to you”. The students act out the story of a community which works to change their behavior and create a sustainable village. The kids used recycled materials to create their own costumes and props and we had a great time gluing and painting together.

By participating in recreational activities related to the environment, our students can use their creativity to develop a personal relationship with the natural world. The foundation’s art, film and music projects work to complement formal lessons and reinforce the children’s respect for and enjoyment of nature.

Over the last three months, 189 children from all over the south-west of Costa Rica have participated in at least one of our environmental education events. We have organized a trip to the Golfo Dulce Reef, participated in the planting of 100 trees, created community banners for the Bird Migration Festival, and lots more!

To help us with all of these achievements, we welcome a new long-term volunteer who has been a wonderful addition to the team. She has assisted with a range of activities including a new child leadership workshop called The Green Classroom.

This semester the students have focused on learning about the diversity of life on the planet and the symbiotic relationship between different forms of life in the ecosystem. We have also added a unit called “The Nature Detectives” to our curriculum in which students use creative problem-solving skills to solve environmental “mysteries”.

As you can see, we have been very busy bees!

Since the expansion of the program into 11 new locations, we need your help more than ever! Public schools, particularly in the South Pacific region of Costa Rica, have very few resources and we want to continue to support them by providing learning materials.

By making a donation to the Corcovado Foundation environmental education program you can contribute to school supplies, teacher salaries and most importantly, help to teach the conservation leaders of tomorrow. Many of the excursions and activities that we organize are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for our students- so please give what you can!

We will write again soon to let you know about all the exciting things we have planned for 2016, and we thank you for your continuing support!

Links:

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Feb 5, 2016
Shinning stars

By Alvaro Amo y Alejandra Monge | Program coordinator and executive director

This December we all enjoyed an awesome experience. We were able to plan and produce an amazing field trip for 50 of the children in some of the local communities that we work with. The trip was planned also as a way to celebrate with the children the end of the school year. We invited the members of 6 of the youth groups that we have formed and supported for the last year and a half. These groups of children are committed to protect the environment and help their communities diminish their impact on their surroundings.

This experience was completely new for most of the children that attended the activity and made them extremely happy. It is hard to describe the immense pleasure that these children experienced and the excitement of the previous days. We had to answer a million questions about what to bring and what to wear. And then, it was so hard to make them to go to bed, these guys were so excited and so happy they didn’t want to waste time by going to bed. Doing things that they had never done before like going to the movies or going to the museum changed their lives.

The objective of the camp was to build leadership among children and showing them the difference between a good leader and a bad leader. But the event was so much more than that. It was an exchange of experiences among the different youth groups, what do they do, what are their challenges. This event helped them see some of the small wonders of the world, and what one can accomplish as a person, as a group and as a community.

Ten years ago, when we had the needed funding, we conducted a similar outing with the youth group in Drake Bay. Today these kids are all local leaders, self-employed, and entrepreneurs. They shine over other people of their generation and in their community. We are hopeful that this generation of youth will shine just as brightly.

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