Costa Rica

While traveling in Costa Rica and visiting one of our oldest hosts in the little Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo, we connected with an enthusiastic group of people that have been working for 3 years  addressing different issues in the area of Talamanca, within those projects we were introduced to  an idea to create a program of education for adults in the region.

The area of Talamanca in Costa Rica is settled mainly by an Afro-Caribbean & Indigenous people that  developed small communities along the coast, here they built their homes and worked as fishermen and coconut farmers, and this continues to be their main source of income. The Afro-Caribbean and the indigenous people of the Bri Bri and Cabacer have fused their own individual cultures , and visiting this place we notice the  unique local flavour that has been born. However, the national language of Costa Rica remains Spanish.The combination of the fact the local indigenous languages obviously aren’t used to educate in the Costa Rican school system, and traditions like story-telling where the indigenous language is only passed on orally has contributed to the rising levels of illiteracy in Talamanca.

We discovered a local group of people with the heart and determination to give back to their own community. They created a non-profit committed to helping the Talamanca population in a variety of issues. Together we have coordinated their efforts to develop a project that combats illiteracy in the region. Where adults can have clases 4 hours a week and learn how to read and write.

Workaway is helping in the organization of a working team of teachers and volunteers, and setting up 3 classrooms around the Talamanca area, stretching from Bri Bri town, to Puerto Viejo, and Honecreek. The first classroom has been set up at a church in the centre of the Bribri town where the  team and the Workaway team helps more students interested in learning how to read and write. We will keep a close eye on this project hoping that in the future we can expand our project to reach all 8 towns in Talamanca area.

Workaway Foundation/ How we can help:

• Providing the necessary material for all classes, this includes notebooks, pens pencils, books, blackboards markers etc.
• Training volunteers to teach the local indiginous community.