Economic Growth Costa Rica Project #10748

Costa Rica rural community support fund

by Corcovado Foundation

Project Report | Dec 16, 2019
"A true act of goodwill always sparks another."

By ALEJANDRA MONGE | Executive Director

Afternoon extra curricular activities

We are almost through 2019, a full of plans, challenges and achievements. The end of the year always means a closing cycle and a rebirth of projects and dreams. Personally, this has been a year full of ups and downs as every other year, but it is a year that I am grateful for.

I feel very grateful for the trust of those who support us: our donors and volunteers, our board of advisors, our consultants and our board of directors. Particularly, I feel grateful for the wonderful team of our foundation that, despite all the difficulties, challenges and problems have been invincible. Their passion for the projects they lead has made them indomitable before the obstacles! Their love to the children, to the communities, to the ecosystems or to the national parks, or their commitment to excellence, I don't know ... I just know that my team members inspire me every day with their effort, their dedication and their creativity. Despite my 19 years working in the foundation, they make working in our organization always a new and exciting experience. Thanks to them our foundation is renewed every day!

I heard that: “A true act of goodwill always sparks another.” Here it is what we have achieved in 2019 thanks to your goodwill:

In the environmental education program, a contest was held in 7 schools, through which more than 1500 kg of recycling were collected. The schools were visited 42 times between March and October, to weigh the recycling materials. In addition, 22 companies in Drake Bay are committed to eliminating the consumption of single use plastic and almost 60 people have been trained on recycling. These companies have been able to collect 2398.63 kilos of recycled materials. In total, between companies and schools, almost 4000 kilos (8,800 pounds) of recycling have been collected during this year.
We have coordinated as part of the “Osa Libre de Plasticos” campaign with the Corcovado National Park and CATUOSA the cleaning of the beaches of the Corcovado National Park managing to collect, with the help of more than 100 volunteers, almost 2 tons (4,000 pounds) of solid waste in a single day.
6 social education workshops have been held at Drake High School, working on the topics of sexual education and commercial sexual exploitation with the National Children's Board (PANI).
Together with the local association of Drake Bay, we formed a group of community leaders to bring travelling university programs and sports activities to the community. In addition, this group has focused on solving the lack of infrastructure for the Drake Bay high school.
An organic garden was built in the community of Banegas with 12 students from the school and several parents, which has had a great impact, since it promotes the culture of planting what we consume and allows children to eat organic products planted with their own hands.
More than 60 international volunteers have actively collaborated in the sea turtle program, in the construction of the nursery, patrols, censuses, beach cleaning, environmental education and nursery care.
We managed $256,000 USD (150 million colones) in infrastructure improvements in Protected Wild Areas. The funding was donated by Costa Rica Por Siempre and we lead the construction and remodeling projects in Rincon de la Vieja, Lomas Barbudal, Manzanillo, Alberto Manuel Brenes and Quetzales.
At the sea turtle project in Rincon de San Josecito, 118 nest nests have been protected, making this season the highest in the history of Rincon. We have also released 4,528 turtles, and we still have lots of eggs to hatch. We have managed to create a very good relationship with the Rincon community thanks to environmental education and a system of local guides that take tourists to see the turtles while they nest or when hatching.
In addition, 39 educational sessions in schools and colleges and 57 educational sessions with environmental groups have been held from February to November, for a total of 96 educational activities during the school year.
We had our first Jungle Party! Which was a great success! Everybody had a great time, and we also raised $ 12,000 USD that will go directly to educational and recreational activities for children of the Osa communities.
In addition, we finished the General Management Plan for the International Park of La Amistad, which implied a great coordination between the Pacific and the Caribbean sector, together with indigenous communities.
110 people from 54 communities, in the buffer zone of 4 protected wild areas of Osa are being skilled as community park rangers. They will become the park ranger backup team for the conservation area. It is a unique model in the country, a study case that can be replicated in the other protected areas.
This year we managed to materialize through audiovisual production, two stories that were worth capturing on video. The first related to the testimonies of students graduated from the Environmental Education program, who told us how the program impacted their lives for good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZbEsujKhY&t=58s and the other of the heroic work of the park rangers in Corcovado National Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03lr99b3WqE.

As we always say, our donors, volunteers and members are the driving force behind our environmental efforts. Thank you for trusting us, thank you for supporting us in one way or another. None of this would have been achieved without you. Please consider continuing to help us in 2020. You can make a tax-deductible donation, both in cash and in kind. Ask us how.

On behalf of all of us who from the Corcovado Foundation family, I extend my best wishes to you for a Christmas and holidays full of harmony and love with your loved ones and a new year full of prosperity, health and peace with our families, communities and the environment.

Wishing you the best,

Alejandra Monge

Corcovado Foundation

Picking up trash

heading to an compost training

heading to learn about compost

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Sep 30, 2019
The bridge, not an easy story to tell

By Alejandra Monge, Corcovado Foundation | Executive Director

Since 2016, the Corcovado Foundation embarked on a huge challenge, building a suspension bridge for pedestrians, and perhaps motorcycles between the community of Progreso and the community of Agujitas. The project was a huge challenge. We made a great fundraising effort, we got around 5 million colones for materials from the Inter-American Foundation, $20,000 from a Canadian philanthropist and member of our organization, and about $2000 from GlobalGiving. We also raised 213 bags of cement donated by community members, companies and friends of the foundation.

In March 2017, we presented the project to the community, during which the participants committed themselves to support the workforce to build the bridge. Following this meeting with the community, a pro bridge committee is created, with the participation of several members of the community, mainly from Progreso. This group of people were the ones that validated all decisions that were taken regarding the bridge.

Subsequently, the Association of Integral Development (ADI) receives a donation of a 2006 Honda Odyssee vehicle with the purpose of being repaired and sold, so that its revenues could be used for the bridge. Even so, we did not have all the funds we required to build the bridge. Which forced us to seek engineering services as a donation. Unfortunately, the engineering services we received were poor and took a long time to arrive.

So with what we had, we started, but after the rains of October 2017, it was obvious that we needed to put gabions on the bridge. We were again waiting from the unpaid engineers for an appropriate design, when during one of those huge monsoon rains one of the bases of the bridge collapsed. Luckily, we had not used the bulk of the funds and most of the materials we had. We lost all the cement.

It is worth clarifying that when this base was located the first time, we placed it where the people who have lived in the town for many years, suggested. It was located as far away from the river as possible, without invading private property. No decision of the bridge was made without consultation to the community. It was in one of these meetings that it was decided to conduct topographic and hydrological studies to try again to build the bridge.

The fall of the bases forced us to seek new advice from engineers. We looked for a consulting firm who also donated their services to us, but this time their commitment to the project was tangible. They asked us to do topographic and water studies to know the composition of the land and the best location of the bridge. The foundation managed to get the topographic studies donated, however, the hydrologic studies had to be paid to the company IIG Consultores, which had a cost of $2,648.

After these studies, the engineers agreed that the only way to build a bridge and provide enough security, and withstand the onslaught of the river, its changes, and the effects of climate change, it was by building a structure of 122 meters (366 feet) long. The approximate cost of this was around 64 million colones (about $116,363.64).

In addition, studies showed that in order to build it, we were going to need to enter private property and for that we would need a donation of the property or to buy it. Given this perspective, there was nothing to do, we had to give up. The foundation does not have the resources to deal with a project of such magnitude.

The ADI staff members tell us that the funds, the remaining materials and the Odysee could be used by the organization to be allocated to community projects, specifically improvements for the high school, which is in huge disrepair. So, in July 2019, the remaining funds of the project were donated to the ADI, for them to invest in rebuilding the high school. We are really sorry that we were not able to pull this project off. We did we did what we could, with the resources we had. We will keep you posted of the progress of the high school. If you would like to donate for the highschool project, you can go to GlobalGiving https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/osa-community-support-fund/

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Jul 3, 2019
You trusted us, and this is what we have achieved!

By Alejandra Monge | Executive Director

A big shout out to you!! You have trusted us, and your trust and support has made an impact!

As I mentioned in a previous report, last year I was happy to run into some of our old “jaguars” (this is how we call the kids that participate or have participated in our Jaguars Youth Group in Agujitas). I had not met these guys for a while, apparently, they were busy becoming wonderful human beings.

I first run into one of them who mentioned how beneficial our environmental education program was for him. How it had served him to open his mind and dream of a better life, for him and his community. He mentioned how after we had taken them to places they never imagined to see in the country, after we had talked to them about how they had the world to explore and conquered, and about how they needed to protect their environment and their community, a spark had lit and they wanted more for themselves and their communities. They wanted to protect their environment, their home and be leaders in their communities.

I was curious, so I reached out to other kids, now adults, that had participated in our program in the past, the result was outstanding. It was wonderful to see the impact of the work of 16 years of dedicated environmental educators, that have guided these young minds into the world of conservation, but also of self-respect, leadership, teamwork and to respect and appreciate others. We then decided to make a video to collect some of the testimonies of these kids.

We have only been able to maintain this program for 16 years thanks to you and people like you, who believed in our efforts.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZbEsujKhY&feature=youtu.be

Please, take a minute and look at our video, and feel free to share it with your friends and brag to them how your support has actually changed the lives of many kids for the better.

Thank you again for your trust!

Links:

See what we are achieving with environmental education

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