Project Launch:

Guaitil and La Florida are two rural communities located in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. As in many rural communities throughout Costa Rica there are few extracurricular activities aside from soccer. With a $500 grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program in 2011, the Health and Savings Camp provided a group of youth between the ages of 8-12 the opportunity to participate in a 3-day sports camp that included volleyball, basketball, ultimate frisbee, and capture the flag, as well as educational activities and games that incorporated lessons on the importance of savings and health. Campers built social skills among a group of peers that rarely has the opportunity to leave their community. The long-term vision of this project is to indirectly strengthen the organization that the camp is partnering with. Both communities have a local micro financing organization with a savings program for youth focusing on teaching savings and money management to promote financial responsibility. This program is called INED (Inversion Educativa/Education Investment) and in both towns, the INED program has not historically been very strong. Thus the goal of the camp was to not only have an immediate positive effect on all of the participants, but also to attract more children to the INED programs that have tremendous potential to shape the lives of the youth in these communities.