Nature solutions for Community development

Thanks to a generous donation since our last update, we are pleased to announce that our Environmental Education program is still in operation! Over the last month, we have been working to transform the way in which we work with our environmental students and the wider community in order to have a greater impact and make a real change!

To engage more effectively with older children, we have been reorganizing our five after-school eco-groups. Now the older kids are taking the lead, by planning, organizing and fundraising for the environmental activities that they are interested in. The kids have really stepped up to the challenge and we have seen them take charge in designing and implementing conservation and community development activities; and how to pay for them.

So far they have decided to sell arroz con leche (sweet rice pudding) and empanadas around the villages of Drake Bay. They also came up with a really cool idea to make -natural soaps from used cooking oils, which we are all excited to try!

Encouraging our students to take responsibility for their own learning is a vital step towards the creation of future conservation leaders. By giving them the opportunity to be the decision-makers we have empowered them to cooperate and communicate more effectively. We have definitely seen that they aremore motivated to complete tasks and have increased engagement with the community as a whole.

Over the next few months our goal is to appoint one of our older alumni students for each of our environmental education groups. Their task will be to assist our environmental educators in leading activities and lessons. They will also provide vital support as a buddy to the younger children so that we are better able to monitor at-risk kids in our community.

Besides this new approach, we are also investing a lot of time in tutoring children. In Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula, most parents have not finished school themselves and find it very difficult to help their children with homework. Therefore we are dedicating several hours a week to work with children one-on-one. Anyone remember logarithms? Neither did we! Over the last month we have been studying too! We have converted an old office into a new classroom and even more students than we expected have been showing up regularly for both academic and emotional support. Our objective is to make sure these children make it through high school and (hopefully) college.

The Corcovado Foundation team is keen to continue with this extra work and so we are reaching out to our wonderful supporters to help us fund an additional environmental educator. In order to cover the food and accommodation for them, we are seeking an additional $480 per month.

By adding an extra member to our small team we will be better able to implement some of the amazing ideas that our student leaders have come up with over the past month.

Thank you in advance for your help!