Help youth in Costa Rica build a brighter future!

The Lifting Hands Foundation (LH) is an NGO with a strong record of success in poverty reduction strategies.

Since 2012, LH has emphasized the promotion of human development and prevention of social issues (such as educational exclusion, juvenile offending, adolescent pregnancy, drug dealing and drug use) in vulnerable communities through learning, recreational activities and accompaniment targeting children, youth, and adults.

The main goal of LH is to reduce the rates of poverty, unemployment and marginalization within the community, as well as the development of skills to ensure more opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Lifting Hands’ activities are supported by an enthusiastic +1500 integrants volunteer base and +120 private sector partnerships. This support contributes to LH’ success so far, with over 1000 people helped directly and over 5000 indirectly. The Foundation’s staff is integrated by 7 people, from which 5 are 100% focused on programs, including a community leader, plus more than 200 regular volunteers.

"My name is Mariana and I am 16 years old. I’ve been part of Lifting Hands for 6 years now and it has been a beautiful journey.

Here, I have learned many things that have helped me grow and become the person I am nowadays. Some things I learned when I was younger were: cook my favorite meal which is pasta, improve my reading and writing skills, improve my English, discover how much I love to paint and also, learn how to dance. Other things I have learned recently within the Anonos.lab program are topics related to self love, nutrition, freedom of speech, teamwork, among others. I love it!

Lifting Hands has helped me so much, I wanted to reward it in some way and, what better way than to volunteer when I can! I love to teach, guide and provide to the new children that come to the foundation, all the tools that they need so they can enjoy a lot and feel this place as their second home.

I am eternally grateful with Lifting Hands for all the opportunities it has given me. This place is definitely a safe zone for me and, I would dare to say that it has changed my life!"

This last week was the training camp for our new coaches. These volunteers are in charge of groups of 6-8 adolescents and meet with them twice per week. They will start their journey next week with an introductory session and will continue till early December. 

The training camp was amazing! We were able to build a really good team that will help us to mentor our adolescents. We had theoretical sessions and also, some team building games and a lot of fun.

Our classes start again on January 31st. The community textes us every day asking for more information and saying they miss us. Its been less than a month but since they ussually visit us almost every day, we know staying at their houses is probably less fun than comming to Lifting Hands to play with their friends, study or share a cooking class. 

Thanks to your help, we have been able to transform more than 200 lives and see them grow. Thank your so much for trusting us and helping us to build a better future for amazing and beautiful people. 

We are very happy to tell you that we are implementing a new program named: Anonos.lab

It is a program that is part of the project "Help youth in CR build a brighter future¨ and is the result of research, surveys and a process of design. This week, we started the pilot program in order to know if our new methodolody works. It was a complete success! 

Thanks to your help, our students are building relationships and working in three edges: emotional health, self-descovery and vision building. Each group has a coach who is in charge of guiding them. 42 adolescents are participating in this pilot. Meanwhile, our other students are part of our regular program. 

Thanks for your help! If you want more details or want to help, please contact us though social media. 

We are back!

Since early February, our amazing volunteers started to learn the new protocols, as well as our beneficiaries. In order to get back to face to face programs, we needed to be aligned. Our strategy was to start step by step, slowly and in order. During the first 3 weeks, just 1 group of 7 kids attended every 2 hours, during 4 days per week. Afterwards, one more group joined per hour. In 2 weeks, 1 more group will join per hour and by then, all of our +250 beneficiaries will be receiving face to face programing again.

This is a really good new! Some of the adolescents were having difficulties with their mental health. It has not been easy for them to stay at home with their parents, which in some cases are negligent or abusive; or to be kept away from their close friends or mentors, etc. We are very happy to have them back and not to see them only via our computers. 

Will be back soon with more news!