Upskill a Community to Fight Poverty in Costa Rica

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:

• To repair and improve the area where people embark to cross and enter to the community ie. to build stairs with railings and repair ramp, as it get very slippery during rainy season, so this would make it more accessible and safer to elder and disable people.

• To build a storehouse inside the community centre in order to keep all the chidren’s materials, that used to be stored in the kitchen - this would help start adapting the kitchen for our long term goal of using it for healthy breakfasts and for people to sell food.

• To build a disabled bathroom following The Costa Rican law, this would allow elder people to have access to it too and also another 2 bathrooms for whenever there are activities inside the community centre.

• Expand and improve the playground with a roof and more games for the children to spend their time in a healthier way. It has been noted that many children from the community greatly enjoy the playground as there are a few recreational activities for them.

• As the Community Centre continues to be used for different events, it didn’t have suitable chairs, so 10 new foldable chairs were bought.

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