Girls Club
Every Girls’ Club is a meeting place where important topics are discussed to grow in freedom and responsibility. 231 girls participated in this program in 2019.
We thank JW Marriott Guanacaste for opening their doors for our graduation trip. It was a nice graduation day out for the girls from Portegolpe, El Llanito and San José de Pinilla. Thanks, Kathia Garcia, our mentor, and to the volunteer bus driver, Carlos Arias.
Andrea Barrientos and David Berard, university students from Spain and Germany, together with Laetitia Deweer and Lauren Morun, did the incredible job of creating the “Club of Successful Girls Handbook” for Costa Rica! This manual provides the structure and contents of 40 workshops for girls and girls between 8 and 13 years old. We have been working in Girls Clubs since 2015 with the Opening Opportunities manual of the NGO Population Council Guatemala. Today CEPIA developed its own manual, based on our vision, creative ideas, Costa Rican context and past experiences. We also introduced romantic love or pain songs, hidden messages in reggaeton music, nonviolent communication, full awareness activities, among others. We welcome any organization or volunteer that would like to participate in this project!
Eye Glasses
This is the second time we receive useful help from ASEMBIS. They did free eye examinations for all the girls and boys. Thanks to this support we can identify eye problems and do glasses to those who needed. ASEMBIS also donated glasses to women from poor backgrounds.
Christmas
Girls and boys from CEPIA celebrated Christmas full of gifts, music, and fun. We thank the Music School from Matapalo and Professor Jerry. CEPIA gave out 1050 Christmas gifts and we received smiles, thanks, and joy. We appreciate CEPIA staff and volunteers’ efforts.
We thank our volunteers, collaborators and donors’ efforts:
Cepia Restaurant led by Erenia Blandon, Nursing Students of the Universidad Latina, Pura Vida Ride, Las Catalinas concierge, Casa Chameleon, CR Sailing Center, Marie’s Restaurant, SurfBox, Gracia Restaurant at Mar Vista, La Paz School, SeaStar, Pura Vida French Touch, Conchal Consignment store, Conchal Beach Club, Page Turner Book Store, Nimbu Spa, Tranquil Vet, Flex and Flow, Pots and Bowls, Educarte School, Journey School, Cavalini Vet, BlackLine Skate shop, Princesas and Piratas Toy Store, Tide Academy, Salty Sols Surf School, GirlFish, Lori (friend of GirlFish), By The Sea, Tamarindo Bay Boutique Hotel, Manuel and Dahiana from Capitan Suizo, Lydia from California, Lindsey from NY, and Karalee Machum, Lola’s restaurant, Hellen & Wim Hoeg.
Thanks, Carla Rowlings for the great pictures:
Extracurricular activities
In these recreational activities kids find a space to develop talents as well as to talk about life situation and, if necessary, our professional staff will take care of certain difficult situations.
The surf groups of CEPIA joined together to celebrate Surfing Day. Our student, Gerson, got first place in the competition.
Kids from El Llanito and Potrero played a friendly football match.
Graduation
We proudly celebrated boys and girl’s graduation. We thank all the families and teachers for their great work during 2019.
