It's For The Monkeys and 60 School Children

There’s great news about this project my friends!

On November 24^th, my birthday, I received a phone call, out of the blue from Miguel Aldrete in San Diego, He explained that his son was interested in working with LRFF to fundraise, with his group of friends, to plant a project. What a birthday gift, it blew my mind, something I’ll never forget.

Miguel Angel Aldrete is 14 years old and has been working to reforest the world since he was 7 years old. He collaborated earlier on with Trees for the Future and is responsible for funding and planting over 14,000 trees so far. Miguel is also Founder and President of his own non-profit organization, Kids 4 Our World.

They have chosen this project, “For the Monkeys and 60 School Children” as the cause for their fundraising campaign and it has begun. They have buit a brand new website for their group and we’ve added a special page for them at our new website as well, where they can receive donations separately.

Not only are they looking to fund and plant this project, but also to fund a “field trip” to La Reserva in Costa Rica, each with a parent, this coming July. If they can reach their funding goal they will work with the 60 school children in Delicias to create the nursery for the project. Hopefully, they will be able to return in December to help plant it.

We have a great field trip planned for the kids in July with a futbol (soccer) game against the Maleku youths, going on the famous forest walk at La Reserve, seedling collection in the forest and transplantation in the La Reserva nursery, a cultural learning experience with the Maleku tribe and some fun stuff as well, i.e. zip lining, river rafting, visit to the waterfall and/or petroglyphs, etc.

Please be sure to check out the links in this progress report and see what these amazing kids are up to. They give me great hope for the future they are OUR future and are dedicated to healing our Earth. Miguel sees it, the truth, that our environment is the root of all other things. If we want a healthy world we must create a healthy environment and for us that means restoring the vital, tropical forests of the world.

They have received $185 to day so that we can…GET PLANTING!

Links:

• Kids 4 Our World project video

It’s For The Monkeys and 60 School Children is a project that is near and dear to our hearts. This project is a continuation by expanding on a previous project called It’s For The Monkeys. That project was designed to help three different species of monkeys return to lands that were once cleared of its trees in the Delicias de Upala. La Reserva invited a local school group from the same village to help plant the last remaining trees for the project. The students were so excited to help that the planting crew, who were digging holes, could not keep up with the kids planting! There was so much excitement and activity from the planting party, a local landowner Fabio Trepovicht, a school teacher as well, approached our Executive Director, Roberta, inquiring about what was going on. She explained to him about La Reserva, the project and why the school kids were there helping. Fabio became instantly interested in LRFF’s work. He explained how he wanted to reforest the total area of his adjacent land that had been cleared many years before. The land is along the Guacalito River, valuable riparian habitat for species needing to access the water. By reforesting this section of river on his property it would also help reduce the erosion and keep the river from cutting into the banks.

Roberta decided this project would be a great way for the school children to take a more active role in implementing the reforestation project, besides just planting the trees. (Be sure to see the attached photos of previous educational programs LRFF has implemented) The kids could be responsible for starting the nursery, collecting the baby trees, learning to identify the species, and caring for them for the six months needed before planting. The children could also observe over time how the forest returns by following up with maintenance and monitoring, the school is directly across the street from the property. This is how the It’s For The Monkeys and 60 School Children project began.

At this point the project has received very little funding; however by getting this project funded we can continue to engage more landowners and communities in this process. As an organization we have been promoting this project on our social media and website. We have been looking for a corporate sponsor to fund it, but we are also hoping for a mix of funding by small individual donors. Our individual donors bring a passionate response and genuinely care about environmental education and habitat restoration. The more donors who become involved and lend support, the more people talk about the success of a project. We would like to thank our entire supporters who have donated to past projects, who know about our good work and commitment to the communities we work with. What we need is a way to connect these projects that have enormous benefits to the environment and the people who live nearby to a wider audience. We feel if more people hear about our work the more support we will receive to make a difference. How can loyal supporters of La Reserva and Global Giving help spread the word about how to reverse climate change to people who may not know?