Category Archives: Migration

Collaborators, Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation, Food Program, La Carpio, Migration, Volunteers

Team Tuesday Spotlight: Alcides – The Guardian

Vol. 3

This post is part of our #TeamTuesday series, highlighting the incredible people who make the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation what it is.

By Jacob Killburg

Alcides

Alcides Antonio López was born in northern Nicaragua and grew up during the Contra War. With his father away, Alcides began working at age six, helping on farms by planting crops and caring for animals. He remembers the sound of gunfire, moving often for safety, and attending school for only three months. One of his sisters died at age seven when a bomb fell nearby. Alcides describes those years as a time of constant work and responsibility, with little room for childhood.

Since leaving Nicaragua in 2000 in search of a better life, Alcides has moved between Nicaragua and Costa Rica in response to economic hardship and political unrest, ultimately resettling in Costa Rica in 2018 as a refugee with a work permit.

Alcides remembers the exact day, July 28th, 2020, when he approached Gail for the first time.  She invited him to carry boxes of vegetables and organize different spaces. From that day, his roles have expanded and he has become a full time collaborator. He feels a deep sense of pride and ownership in helping with food distribution, managing the Foundation’s nearby recycled clothing shop, and coordinating volunteer outreach. “For me, the Foundation comes first. I’m giving my all here — until God decides my time is done.”

Alcides is the guardian of eight children who he has taken in as his own. To those children and many others in the community, Alcides hopes to instill a value he says should guide every interaction: respecting and treating everyone well, regardless of age or status.

After many years without schooling, Alcides is now studying literacy at a university in San José. “It means everything to me,” he said. “I want to better myself, to prepare for my future, my life, my family.” Returning to education has helped him communicate more confidently and connect with people in new ways.

He defines leadership as caring for others, whether it be within his family or for his community. He hopes the Foundation will keep growing with new support to improve La Carpio, and believes the current team is strong and ready to carry on that mission for years to come.

“For me,” Alcides says, “the Foundation is my family, my home, and my purpose.”

Collaborators, La Carpio, Migration, Volunteers

Team Tuesday Spotlight: Doña Antonia — The Heart of CRHF

Vol. 1

This post is part of our #TeamTuesday series, highlighting the incredible people who make the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation what it is.

⸻

By Jacob Killburg

Doña Antonia

María Antonia Zequeira García, affectionately known as Doña Antonia or simply “Abuela”, was born in Joyalpa, Nicaragua, the seventh of eleven siblings in a close-knit Catholic family. Life in Nicaragua was marked by hardship and limited opportunities. In 1992, at age 38, she left Nicaragua alone in search of work and safety, eventually making her home in La Carpio, Costa Rica. She later brought her two eldest children to join her and gave birth to her youngest daughter in Costa Rica.

Doña Antonia’s connection to the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation began by chance. One day she came to buy vegetables and was told they were looking for someone to step in as a cook. That was seven years ago, and since then, the Foundation has become her second home. She prepares breakfast and lunch for the CRHF team 7 days a week and for volunteer groups that sometimes amount to as many as 100 mouths to feed in one day. Despite this, she insists on being left to handle the task alone, and delivers a delicious meal to every plate. These meals carry her warmth and generosity, nourishing the body and the spirit of those around her. She describes herself as “a fish in water” when cooking, and at the Foundation she has found companionship and purpose.

Her path has been full of trials: losing her partner to COVID-19, navigating her daughter’s lifelong health challenges, caring for a son through leukemia, and mourning the deaths of siblings and other loved ones. Financial strain, medical hardships, and immigration struggles within her family have tested her strength repeatedly. Yet, she has carried herself with dignity and perseverance through it all.

Doña Antonia embodies the heart of La Carpio—resilient, resourceful, and community-minded. She has turned hardship into wisdom, grief into compassion, and work into a labor of love. She believes deeply in God’s strength, which she feels sustains her in the hardest moments, and she keeps hope alive for her children’s futures. In every corner of the Foundation, her presence, like a steady flame, is impossible not to admire.

Migration

Alcides Goes Home

And yet another of our collaborators is heading off. This time it is Alcides going home to Nicaragua to see his ill mother and his graduating son. I see him so strong and healthy and well dressed and confident. So much thanks to our gracious benefactor Howard, who believed in him. Well done to all of us.

It’s just like sending your children out into the world…it is sad, exciting, scary and very pride filled . Elvis, Bismark, Henry, Yader, each has his story and each has grown so healthy under our caring watch.

Go well my friend.

Migration, Success Stories

Success Stories from the Field #7 – The Saga of Yader

Some of you might remember Yader who came to us in 2018. Fleeing out the back door as the army burst into the front door looking for him. He has been a loyal, kind and conscientious workplace companion.

Last month, after a three month vetting process he legally entered into the US and wound up in Dallas. He was picked up in Dallas airport and dropped off at a studio apartment with an air mattress and some food.

And there he sat . No one came to see him. He ran out of food…he called us…our donor Howard got him some food via Uber(go figure). We began to investigate and suspected a scam. Things got really weird when he got an eviction notice.

So I sent out the word via Facebook and along came Claudia who was part of our peace group in October. She happens to live in Houston and was heading to Dallas the very next day to watch the eclipse.

She happens to speak fluent spanish because she happens to be of Mexican descent. She located Yader and got him all straightened out and then they watched the eclipse together.

He now has had his rent paid, gotten his healthcare card, permission to work and some cash . It seems that his caseworker had slipped up. Anyhow…it helps to have friend in High Places. As we say here ‘Gracias a Dios.’ His America dream is being realized.

Migration

Yader Goes to Dallas

This is a very bittersweet day because it’s Yaders farewell, he’s on his way to Estados Unidos, to Dallas, TX. He’s gotten really good orientation from the International Organization for Migrants, from the UNHCR, and from the local government officials. He’s got all his documents in order.

It’s really hard because he’s really happy here, but he also knows that this is a unique opportunity, and he knows that he’s up for it and ready for it.

We gave him our best advice, you’re strong , you’re kind, you’re honest, you’re a good worker, you’re gonna find something really nice to do so that you can live in a fine place. And you’re gonna come back in your car and wave to all of us.

And then I proceeded to show him how to use the bathroom in an airport in an in an airplane since he doesn’t yet read, he can’t read the instructions.

So, we had quite the time just talking about how to take care of that issue. And then we also pantomime about take off your shoes, your belt, your things in your pocket, put it in the bin.

That’s as much as we can do. And all of us mothers were a little bit teary eyed because we remembered when we dropped our kids off the bus, the airport, the college, the wherever, the camp, it’s hard to leave your kids, it’s hard to see your kids go. And the love will never change.