Nature solutions for Community development

From a few years now, maybe 10 years ago, the garbage truck began servicing the Drake Bay communities to collect ordinary garbage. This was a great achievement! With a new law in effect and the pressure of our environmental educators, the municipality finally started to adventure their garbage truck thru rivers and steep inclined dirt roads. And now, three years ago we are enjoying the luxury of a recycling truck that is collecting recyclable materials once a month.

Most of the people in the community buried their garbage and burned it, can you imagine the pollution that this produced?

In order to support the municipality’s effort and fulfill our mission, this year we are running a contest in the schools. The mission of the contest is to promote recycling at home and at school and prevent homes from burnings their waste or burning it. A contest is also a way to give value to the waste.

Every month we visit 7 schools weighing the amount of recycling they have managed to separate. To our surprise, this contest is really changing the communities and their behavior towards waste. For instance, the school at the small community of Banegas, only had 12 students. This community didn’t enjoy the visit of a recycling truck until very recently, but now that the truck is servicing them, and the competition is in place the community is collecting a lot of recycling. 83 kilos of recyclable items just last month. 83 kg of garbage that will not be burned or buried, that will have a new life.

We are all part of this important mission to free the planet from all the waste that is doing so much damage the ecosystems of the world, specially our oceans, and as always children are once again the example that change must begin with oneself.

The Environmental Education program was established in 2003. It is the only permanent environmental education program in the South Pacific of Costa Rica. By 2019 our program had reached the following achievements:

• 4000 children reached in 16 years.

• Around 625 children have participated in youth groups.

• 7 schools visited monthly to promote environmental education

• We are working with Drake Bay High School for values and prevention of violence and teenage pregnancy.

When we started working our focus was the Corcovado National Park. A short time later we understood that it was not enough to put park rangers in every corner, if the communities did not understand the value of their natural resources. Next we comprehended that nobody can protect the environment if t hungry, we needed to help the communities so that they could develop economically. Thus, our organization been leading a learning process and has made a great effort to promote the sustainable development of the communities of the Osa Peninsula.

In this way, through our Environmental Education program, we not only promote the conservation of resources but also the development of soft skills such as teamwork, the empowerment of boys and girls and leadership.

In the video attached to the email we sent, we collected testimonials from program graduates who saw their lives impacted and transformed by the program. For us it is an honor and a great responsibility to continue marking positively the lives of these boys and girls and thus propitiate to be the agent of change that our world needs.

Links:

• The impact of environmental education