On December 2, more than 4,000 children from over 40 rural public schools will fill a stadium in Las Tablas, Panama, for the "Mono Fiesta": a celebration of a year spent learning to protect the forests and wildlife of the Azuero Peninsula. Just $10 brings one child: the bus ride from their village, lunch, a T-shirt and learning materials, and helps inspire the next generation of environmental stewards of Panama.
Azuero's tropical dry forest, home to the critically endangered Azuero spider monkey, is one of the most threatened ecosystems in Latin America. The children growing up here will decide its future, yet environmental education is rarely part of their school day, and many of them have never been part of something this big.
Pro Eco Azuero's Spider Monkey School Initiative started in 2010 with 3 schools and 25 students. Today it reaches more than 3,000 children in 40 schools. In 2025 it won the UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development, the first time a Panamanian organization has received it. The Mono Fiesta unites every school for the first time in a morning of theater, music, environmental activities, and even a visit from Green Santa, who will hand each child a native seedling to plant at home.
At the Mono Fiesta, students will make new connections and share what they have learned with their families and community-members. Every child will leave with a tree to plant, a T-shirt they will wear for months, and the knowledge that thousands of kids across Azuero care about the same forest they do. That shared pride is what turns students into lifelong stewards. Any funds raised beyond the Mono Fiesta will support the Spider Monkey School Initiative in 2027.
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