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September 2023 Little by Little campaign!
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Dear Supporters,
During this quarter we have been working together with our partners UNED and Asomacao, with the purpose of strengthening the capability of the community, for adults, children and adolescents, however, due to the current situation in Costa Rica, we have focused our work on supporting the education of the children and adolescents in the community.
We continue working with the established projects, however we have now taken an important role in Childcare. Due to the on-going strikes in Costa Rica, there has been no school for almost two months (it is very likely that this will be extended until the beginning of February 2019). We are concerned that the children will fall behind in their studies, so now the, activities with children, include lessons covering reading, comprehension and math. We have designed lessons to target the different age groups (between 4 -12). Environmental activities are being carried out, with the support of our partner ASOMACAO, and we are creating awareness of the importance of wildlife.
It is important to continue supporting the children of the community. It is worth mentioning that we are also working with teenagers, who are now participating more in the Teaching English program. We are encouraging them to remain interested in studying and not fall into social problems such as drug taking or alcoholism.
We will continue working this way so the children from Cocal can start the next school year with strong foundations. We will also continue to motivate young people to continue participating in community study and development programs which have the potential to provide opportunities for them to move forward and improve their quality of life.
With Love,
Costa Rica Community Team
Dear Supporters,
In line with SDG 3, Good Health and Well Being, one of our long-term objectives at GVI Quepos is to improve access to education and wellness to El Cocal community.
El Cocal is the main community we work in, and we have been working there for seven years (since GVI opened its hub in Quepos). El Cocal is unique because it’s a semi-illegal settlement as all the houses on the peninsula are built too close to the water according to Costa Rican legal standards. For this reason, the community doesn’t receive much governmental assistance. To further complicate things, there is a large immigrant population living on the peninsula, the majority being from Nicaraguan. Many of the Nicaraguan residents of El Cocal are in difficult situations as it’s very difficult for them to get legal documentation such as a passport or ID card, and this also means many of these immigrants receive no health insurance.
We (GVI Quepos volunteers and staff) promoted a fundraiser for a woman named Eneyda. Eneyda has been working with us since the beginning of GVI Quepos. She cooks lunch for our volunteers every day and sees us as her “GVI family.” Apart from cooking for us, she also welcomes us by inviting us to family events such as birthday parties, and really enjoys having our volunteers come and cook with her. Even if the volunteers don’t speak Spanish and she doesn’t speak English, they communicate and have a great time. She truly is part of the GVI Quepos family and it wouldn’t be the same without her.
Eneyda is an immigrant from Nicaragua who came to Costa Rica twenty years ago with her nine children walking and using public transport. She brought her family here to Costa Rica so they would be safer and get a better education. She receives no health insurance from the government and as she is getting older, some of her health conditions have worsened. She has thrombosis in her right foot, gastritis, high blood pressure, and anemia. The medications she requires cost around $200 USD per month and she will need them for the rest of her life.
We were fortunate enough to have raised enough money to fund her medications for at least six months. Many former volunteers and their families reached out with kind words, photos of their time with Eneyda, and their donations.
With so much gratitude, thank you!
GVI Quepos
Dear Supporters,
During 2017 we continued working with El Cocal community, and aimed to continue improving our programs. This was what the first quarter of this year was all about. Moreover, we started a Women empowerment program that should help to get us closer to our ultimate goal which is to empower the community in such a way that one day they don’t rely on our presence and improve their conditions.
For instance, before Christmas we asked a local contact with a degree in education to help us in improving the way we deliver our Childcare programme. We had been aware for a while that with the high turnover of people on this project, it was possible that we were not giving the children the best learning outcomes that we could give. We also realized that a week is not enough to even begin embarking on a theme, and given that none of us have any professional qualifications in teaching, we wanted to ask the experts to help us devise a curriculum that would work for our children, and provide a point of continuity from volunteer to volunteer. That is where Daniel came in. He came to observe our classes and devised a 6 month programme for us to use with our students, with 4 key themes spread over a period of 6 weeks. We started with the curriculum this January and we have been really pleased with how the children have responded to it. They really enjoy getting into the topic and you can notice they are learning much more than they used to. The month of January was spent looking at the theme ‘Convivencia’ or ‘Coexistence’, and the kids seemed to take away a lot. As part of this new curriculum, each week we study a new story related to the theme and we make a story board from it using our imaginations and drawing skills.
As for English teaching, we teach to teens and young adults in two different places. One is El Cocal, an illegal settlement just outside of central Quepos; and the other is Uvita, which is a town about an hour’s drive from base. While the two areas and two groups of students are different in some ways, they have one thing in common. They are both in touristic areas where even a basic level of English dramatically increases one’s employability. This is the reason for the need of English classes, and we teach directly depending on their needs.
In February, we’ve had spectacular volunteers who have been enthusiastic and ready to plan and prepare lessons for our different groups, especially in El Cocal. With the help of more volunteers, we can split the groups up further to give students more one-on-one time. Hence, some of the volunteers have had the opportunity to tailor lessons to individual students. For example, one gentleman who is currently working at a casino in Quepos and speaks a lot of English heard about our classes and decided to check them out. He is trying to get a better job working for a cruise line, but needs to improve his English overall, especially for the interview. For one of the lessons, one of our volunteers prepared a set of interview questions to go through with him. That student was able to get all of his questions answered, as well as practice comprehension and speaking with a native speaker, as opposed to practicing on his own at home.
March saw three school groups from USA that came to do service work and learn about Costa Rica and the challenges there are in Latin American development. They did a diverse amount of work from reforestation and mangrove cleaning to painting the new bathroom in the community centre to building more palm shades in the beach. These types of activities add up to the final goal of development and empowerment, as well as providing other sources of income to little by little divert them from vices and unsustainable ways of living.
Thank you for your continued support!
With Gratitude,
GVI Costa Rica
Dear Supporters,
This quarter we continued to run our two main programmes whist also participating in other exciting extracurricular events with the community. The University, Estatal a Distancia wanted to set up an event in the community which would promote anti violence, and organised family workshops which would equip residents with the tools they need to help them if they experience violence in their homes.
UNED contacted some community leaders in Cocal in order to set the ball rolling for the series of events they wanted to run, and the community leaders reached out to GVI to ask for our support in the process of organising everything. We were happy to help as we felt these events focused on topics that were pertinent issues to the community, such violence in the home and celebrating children.
UNED wanted to inspire the parents and children and equip them with the tools they need to handle these conflicts together and show visible solidarity against this behavior. In this community where people live in sometimes quite difficult circumstances it was lovely to see them all coming together to participate in this event. There was an amazing energy throughout the day and you could visibly see people’s happiness as they had fun with their families. The goals of the event were to promote the wellbeing of children and protest against violence in the home, and we think that UNED achieved this with the series of workshops and the main event that they organised.
In the month of October, a red alert for storms and flooding was declared across the whole of Costa Rica. Tropical storm Nate soon hit our area leaving many of us without electricity and water in our homes that night. We hoped that this would be the worst of the extent of the damage, but the morning after the storm we heard that many families’ homes had been washed away by the strong rains and currents. We set out into the community to see what we could do, bringing bottled water to the locally set up shelters, helping to hand out food and bringing toys and games for the children.
The week after, the relief efforts continued and all families in Cocal were supplied a bag of ‘diarios’ (daily essentials) by the Costa Rican government. The community centre was used to hand the supplies out and GVI volunteers and staff helped to transport the supplies over to Cocal, and local families were grateful for the packages they received. GVI also began a short term fundraising campaign with a 1000USD dollar target and thanks to donations from volunteers, GVI Quepos alumni, and their families we managed to raise our target in the space of the week and this money was spent on supplies for local people.
Thank you for your support in 2017 - we look forward to a great new year!
With Gratitude,
GVI Costa Rica, Quepos
Dear Supporters,
During July and August GVI Quepos had thre main area's to focus on ie. Education, Health and Infrastructure. Therefore, in a meeting with the community, it was decided that the construction projects they needed these funds to go to were:
We continue working with this community side by side and our aim is to support them to achieve their objectives, which are to improve its conditions, empower the people and the children and support them with infrastructure and education. Having the community so motivated working together and also getting funding from other sources motivates us to continue helping them.
It is worth to mention that while skilled labor worked on the big construction tasks, some costs were absorbed by the community members. Volunteer participants greatly contributed painting the new structures and putting up 1km of sandbags as a sidewalk which was such a hard work.
We are so greatful for all the help we continue to receive for this initiative!
With love,
Cynthia Arochi
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