Help Palo Seco, CR Children With Their Future

I’ve lived abroad for a few years and Costa Rica is now home. Some things here are similar to the US, and somethings aren’t. One very different thing is the school system.

I recently met with Sonia Duran Rojas, the new principal of the school. I stopped by to ask if it was okay for us to build a playground for the kids. We drive by everyday and see the kids sitting on tires, which are half buried in the sand, because that’s the only “playground” they have. Do you remember how much fun you had on the playground at school?

ALL KIDS NEED A PLAYGROUND!

What I found out that day would break any parents heart! The kids and the school need so much more than a playground!

• The school was broken into and their computers were stolen.

• They don’t have a library or ANY books for the kids, who range in age from 4-14.

• ALL KIDS NEED BOOKS!

• The fans wear out quickly on the beach and they need new fans ASAP.

• There are 7 new students sitting on the floor because they can”t afford new desk/chairs for them.

Children ARE Children, NO MATTER WHAT country you are in!

They love to play, their minds are growing, and they are our future! Every child deserves a chance to be successful and a lot of this learning occurs in the early years of life. They need computers, they need books and notebooks, and they deserve to learn in comfortable conditions while sitting at a desk, not on the floor. They need a playground because it helps with motor & cognitive skill development, leadership skills, and problem solving. And it’s just good ‘ole FUN!

These donations will help us to build something for these children that they might not ever have the opportunity to have.

The funds are going to cover :

- School Equipment : 11 laptops, a library area with BOOKS, all school supplies that kids need

(for 27 kids), kid games, ABC puzzles, filing cabinets, 5 industrial fans, 7 chairs & desk, 3 teacher chairs, plastic bowls & spoons & cups, blender, all cleaning supplies, paint for the outside doors....

- Playground Equipment : a swing set, monkey bars, fort, tire swing, rock climbing wall, cargo net climb, chalkboard wall & chalk, safe room/storage with a lock, all the material, along with labor. If there’s any additional money, it will be put into a fund for any other ongoing needs that might arise.

We live in a small Costa Rican community & most of the locals have lived here their entire life. The dads work up and down the beach, doing general maintenance, yard work, and selling fish & shrimp. The moms clean houses and sew & sometimes work along side their husbands, just to make ends meet. They are very humble, hardworking, and kind people, who invite you into their family immediately, and would share anything they have with you, which isn’t much.

The challenges we are facing is a lack of finances here. They just simply don’t have the money to buy these items themselves.

When I spoke to Ms. Sonia and she explained the distress the school was in, I knew that we had to do something to help these children. They deserve the basic educational necessities to succeed that ALL CHILDREN deserve.

IT COULD BE A LIFE CHANGER FOR THEM!

I know most of us are parents. What we want as parents is the best for our children, we want them to have it better than we did growing up. That starts with an opportunity! It starts with caring! It starts with leaving the world, and the people we come across, a little better than we found them.

NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL!

Please help us give these kids a fighting chance!

Today they are our children, tomorrow they are our future!

God Bless! Pura Vida!