Village of Hope

Finca La Carpio is a large pieceof land owned originally by the Costa Rican medical system to be used as a recreational area for their members.  Nearly twenty years ago, some Nicaraguan immigrants came to the land and placed some plastic and corrugated iron shacks on the land. Since that time, there have been an increasing number of squatters on the land and now, there are about 34,000 people living there.  The Nicaraguans have arrived through the years for a variety of reasons including, the devastation of a civil war, the destruction of natural disasters and the desperation of poverty that led to hunger.  The people who came here are resilient, strong and resourceful.  Since Costa Rican is the signatory to national treaties guaranteeing the right to education, healthcare and livable housing to all those who live in the country, these immigrants were able to receive free public education, a chance for adequate health care, infrastructure improvements in their communities and opportunities to search for work.  The housing situation has improved for most of the families living in this area due to their own hard work and frugality.  Soon, the government will be assisting them in the process of legalizing the title to their land.

Our Foundation began to work in this community in 1997 with the urging of one of our volunteers.  She saw the need for increased education and health care for the children of the community so we organized a series of workshops for women and children at the school.  Through the years, we provided a wide variety of services to the children from clothing distribution to toys for Christmas to toothbrush distribution to health workshops. 

In the year 2004, we began the construction of a community clinic and with the help of Dartmouth College students, completed phase one of a permanent facility to provide care for the health of the community members. In the beginning,we were seeing nearly 40 patients per day, we now see about 25.  We feel that this is because our constant presence has allowed people to improve their overall health situation and has lessened the emergency need and urgency that people once felt.  As a complement to our work in the clinic downstairs, we have also provided a program of health education to children and women in our upstairs model education center. In this center, children come on a daily basis to get support for all their health and education needs.  We began with simple workshops on how to brush teeth, how to say no to strangers, how to deal with a death in the family and are now working with the children on sports, photography, music, theater, and improved school grades. We have begun a Girl Scout program in coordination with a local troop of international students and also have the only open library in the community.  The program was originally designed and run by our international volunteers but at the current time, it is completely run by the local women who have been trained and prepared by us. 

Two years ago, we began and completed the construction of two other facilities in La Carpio. One is a daycare center and community center upstairs and the other is a second model education center and community center. Through the generous support of our donors and many volunteers these facilities have been able to provide quality daycare for children whose parents work, weekly medical seminars, playground, high quality education activities and workshops for women among many other activities. In one community, we helped to complete the paving of a narrow, trash strewn muddy lane into a street that is decent and clean.  

In all three of our facilities, we have emphasized self help and skills to take advantage of the resources available.  We have provided funding for many small business enterprises and have given what was needed so that women could look for work for themselves. This has included basic food baskets,  bus fare, clothing, shoes, counseling, recommendations and child care. We have also given housing to three families whose special needs included medical situations that did not allow them to seek work. 

Our work in Carpio has had a huge impact on the community and we look forward to continuing to see this population of children and adults improve the quality of their lives.  We plan to work street by street to beautify each area, to paint houses, to plant trees and flowers, to upgrade some of the houses so that people can live in more substantial dwellings and to work with the school to provide supplemental education for the children.

The goal is to have our current programs continue and to provide increased autonomy for the women who now work with us so that they can run all the programs themselves. 

A doctor in the Clinic.

 The Model Education Center - "Centro Modelo"

Sign of La Libertad Guarderia

Kids by the River.