Central Michigan University Volunteered with Tropical Adventures this last December, 2008. This video shows the beauty of their work. Thank you so much guys for your commitment and support in these projects.

In our special December newsletter we spoke about the floods that happened in Costa Rica and Panama in November.  Thousands of people lost their crops and livestock in the floods and others had to leave their homes and go into temporary shelters.  Indigenous people in the Talamanca area where we have several projects were some of the worst hit.  Many lost crops that they will not be able to replant or harvest any produce from for a further 18 months, meaning they have been left without an income source for food, clothes and living expenses.  This is a particularly critical time in ensuring the people affected receive on-going help as many of the immediate relief efforts have subsided.

In addition to the support we are giving in the way of donations of food and clothes to some of the affected families, we are going to be partnering with Children Incorporated - a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the maintenance, support, education and welfare of needy children all around the world.  We will be working together with them to help support the people on the indigenous reservation post-flood and to create a more sustainable income in the form of a co-operative that will allow community members to come together and support one another in economic activities aside from banana or plantain production.  We are currently researching, together with Children Inc., the possibility of creating a chicken farm co-operative.

After getting the project going, we'd also be helping them with setting up distribution and marketing of their products, including the creation of an area farmer's market. Our plan covers sustainable income, disaster relief, assistance to children and elderly and will help many people who can't harvest any more crops for 18 more months.  In addition to this, we are hoping to be able to employ an intern in the area to help us research and develop this and future projects that will help people in the Talamanca indigenous area.

In addition to this, Children Inc. will also be helping us to set up a Sponsor-a-Child program.   We are very much looking forward to working together with Children Inc. to further extend our support of Costa Rica's under-resouced indigenous people.  Keep posted for further info!

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Our Holiday Projects, which took place in Hojancha community, Puerto Viejo and Bambu over the last 3 weeks have been a great success thanks to so many donations and all the volunteer help we received from so many generous people - we can't thank you all enough. 

Mixed with the fun and games of the events which involved parachute games, inflatable slides, painting, musical chairs, papier mâché and piñatas, many of the local community members and children who attended the parties were able to receive donations of clothes, food and blankets.  All the events were attended by a large proportion of the community.  Many people from the Bambu indigenous reservation walked for hours in each direction to attend our party there - we are so pleased we were able to give them a day to remember. We've already had many kind words of thanks from many of those who came to the events which have been lovely to receive.

Highlights of the events included students from the Central Michigan University donating gift bags to all the children from the Daycare & Nutritional Center in Hojancha and the Clarke family donating flip-flops to all the children at the Bambu Indigenous Cultural Center party and creating much laughter amongst residents of the Bambu retirement home by acting out a funny skit - we never thought we'd see Executive Director, Scott, running around the room dressed in a baby's diaper! 

We had volunteers from as far away as Japan and England working together to organize and run all these events as well as some local Costa Rican residents - it was a great team to have - we couldn't have asked for a more fun, hard-working and all-round fantastic bunch of people to help us with these projects and give all of our communities a Christmas party to remember.

Take a look at some more photos of the events on our website photo gallery here.

Pura vida,

Sarah

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