Costa Rica rural community support fund

The thought of children crossing the Rio Drake river unassisted in order to make it to school haunts my nights.  For years and years children from El Progreso have been forced to walk more than 4 miles and cross a moody river to be able to go to their high school.   2 years ago I witness a father trying to cross that river with the water to the height of his chest and his 3 year old child on his shoulders.  He stumbled and nearly fell,  we had to cover our mouth in terror! The father decided to turn back and find shelter, he was not going home that night. This year that river kept El Progreso isolated from civilization during the month monsoon month of November, which had crowned with the Hurricane Otto.  The community lacked supplies, school was cancelled and there was no access to medical treatments or emergency attention.   This year with your help and the help of people like you we are building a pedestrian bridge between Progreso  and Drake Bay.  The Interamerican Foundation is allowing us to use the remaining funding from the FACOSA/Osa Community Support Funding to build this hanging bridge. This bridge will allow children to walk safely to school and the local people to commute to work and to see the local doctor without risking their lives.

On April 3^rd we are having a meeting with the local community in order to organize the matching funds from the community.  Their contribution will be their hard work.  The foundation will allocate $9,000 USD for materials.  The project should be completed in June 2017.

The Corcovado Foundation, with the support of the Interamerican Foundation has allocated $38,000 USD dollars to community development projects.  These projects ranging from funding micro projects to building drinking water systems in isolated communities. This project has helped many communities to greatly improve their quality of life. The Osa Community Fund was created by our organization with funding from the InterAmerican Foundation earmarked for community projects.  These monies have been  given to grass roots groups after they have committed to match the value of the donation by providing man-hours, or similar inputs to the project.  Due of the nature of this funding The Corcovado Foundation does not charge one dollar for its administration. Not having overhead costs means a larger investment in the communities we serve.

On behalf of our team, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your donations and support and I want to encourage you to keep informed of our activities and program through our facebook page at www.facebook.com/funcorco.  Please help us help more communities by making a donation to this project on Globalgiving. 

As the year comes to an end, I am counting my blessings and you and your support has been one of them.    Here are some of the main accomplishments of 2016, and they were all possible because of your contribution:

• The environmental education program reached 325 children from 22 schools every two months.
• We worked with 68 teenagers in 3 workshops, to analyze with them ways to stop violence against women and children, and sexual education.
• 82 formal teachers received training about environmental education and how to teach and educate children to become more respectful and sensitive towards the environment.   Due to this training process, more than a 1000 children are now receiving formal training.
• 6 environmental children groups were formed and are meeting weekly in 4 different communities, supporting environmental efforts such a beach and rivers cleanups and recycling.
• Among other successes, we should mention also our turtle conservation program, which protected more than 2000 nests at the Rio Oro Wildlife Reserve and therefore ensure the survival of an estimate of 99,000 baby turtles that made it to the sea. 

Wishing you a wonderful 2017 full of happiness, health, peace and adventure,

Alejandra Monge

Corcovado Foundation.