Volunteering in Costa Rica

Costa Rica 2014

Emily Cornelissen and George Reilly

August 2014

 Me and George plan to spend a week in an Orphanage in La Fortuna in July 2014.

The Orphanage is a refuge for children in La Fortuna. They regularly provide food, shelter and support for about 40 children and young people on a residential basis. They interact with their closest family members and also use their refuge as a base for wider work in the local community. They also distribute a variety of material goods sent from the UK, both to the refuge, to the families of the children, to the immediate community and from time to time into the interior of Costa Rica. When we go to work at the refuge we hope to help with all of the above and anything else we can do to contribute to the wellbeing of the children. 

 The project also helps with the ongoing struggle to provide even the most basic elements, the refuge is a haven for the many children and others in need who co-operate in the daily effort to find dignity through self-sufficiency, and security through co-operation.

 Due to these extreme levels of poverty children rarely get the opportunity to learn. According to official statistics, 28.6% of children between the ages of 6-17 already receive wages or are paid in kind. Around 90% work in the informal sector for more than 45 hours per week, not including children involved in domestic work, therfore as mentioned above work in most cases competes with schooling and wins. In rural areas children are an important source of household labour, so children in jungle and highland areas always stand to be further marginalised. We believe that with your donations we can help towards the ongoing success of the orphanage, and help to give the children one of the most important gifts any one can give, an education.

 For myself and Emiy, it will be a huge privilege to work and live at the refuge where the divisive implications of the 'first world' and the 'third world' vanish, and even with few comforts it is the happiest place that many people from all world have so far experienced, a world that me and em would very much relish the oppurtunity to visit and contribute towards.  

 Money Raised will help towards achieveing the Orphanages overall aim of helping some of those suffering from extreme poverty and disadvantage in Costa Rica. The charity hopes to not only reach the young people that seek help at the refuge, but where funds permit they will try to widen their scope to support others in the community beyond the refuge.

Thankyou

George and Emily.