About CEPIA Costa Rica

CEPIA is a Costarican nationally accredited non-profit organization that since 2005 promotes culture, educational and labor opportunities, mental and physical health, participation, and social cohesion of children, teenagers and their families living in vulnerable conditions to improve their quality of life in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

About our Founder

Laetitia Deweer worked as the executive director for 12 years, then as vice-president for 4 years and today she serves as the development director. Laetitia was born in Belgium in 1979 and as a university student, she participated in social projects in Guatemala and Mexico. At age 23 she moved to Costa Rica and worked in a family business on the pacific coast for one year before getting deeply involved as a volunteer with PANI (government child protection agency in Costa Rica). She founded CEPIA in 2005, together with her lifelong friend Lotje De Ridder, who now lives in Belgium.

Laetitia studied Educational Sciences with emphasis on Family Education at the University of Ghent in Belgium and Clinical Psychology at the Universidad Latina in Costa Rica. She also works as a private EMDR psychotherapist and transformational breathwork facilitator. Laetitia speaks Spanish, English, French, and Dutch. She is a fellow of the Central America Leadership Initiative of the Aspen Institute (USA).

Laetitia remembers how she first thought about this project. "It was around 20 years ago when I settled in Costa Rica and was working as a family counselor, that people started to recognize me in the village and ask me how I could help them with their difficult situation. The kids in the village wanted to do sports, learn to use a computer..."

How it all started

"I volunteered at first in the orphanage to really get in touch with the children. They had been abused and neglected for so many years... and I thought:
- We should prevent this, we should try to help people when they are in need, at the moment they need the help. Some people were deeply suffering...

Los niños estaban todo el día en la calle, sin saber qué hacer y realmente vulnerables a cualquiera que pudiera aprovecharse de ellos o abusar de ellos".

Children were hanging out in the street all day, not knowing what to do, and really vulnerable to anyone who could take advantage of them or abuse them."

My high school friend Lotje De Ridder who studied Spanish-English as well as Education in developing countries, visited me in Costa Rica and she decided to stay with me for 1 year to help me start up the project. She went back to Belgium, organized a fundraiser and came back with $6000!

History of CEPIA

"50 children show up at the center the first week! They wanted to practice arts, they wanted to get to see these new laptops, and they wanted to get support, and some kids started to open up and talk about their dad beating them up, or their step-father abusing them and that's when we knew that this was an important initiative because kids finally had a place to feel safe. Kids needed to do something after school because they only had 4 hours a day school."

"Today you can ask people in any of these villages nearby if they know CEPIA and everyone knows CEPIA is protecting children. This is very important in an area with high rates of domestic violence and family disintegration."

Our founding members (2005) are: Laetitia Deweer, Lotje de Ridder, Caroline Lemaire, Van Salcedo, Gerardo Brenes Alfaro, Isabelle Vandevelde, Juliana Zuñiga Spano, Victor Ruiz Genoves.

Board of directors

Simona Danielle

President

Martin Salerno

Vice-President

Maureen Navarro

Secretary

Vincent Barrabe

Treasurer

Wenceslao Mendioroz

Vocal 1

Natalia Gallego

Vocal 2

Roberto José Céspedes

Vocal 3

Jorge Alers

Fiscal

Staff

Maria Jose Cappa

Executive Director

Grettel Chacón

Secretary

Heyling Larios Fonseca

Assistant Pre-School

Laetitia Deweer

Director of Development & Strategy

Natasha Guerrero Rosales

Assistant, Intervention Center

Graciela Gómez Guevara

Assistant, Intervention Center

Ana Laura Zelaya

Educational Coordinator, I.C.

Priscilla Arias Rodriguez

After School Program & Volunteers

Eleana Cristina Alcocer Ramirez

Psychologist

Karla Marin Rodríguez

Youth Group Psychologist

Claudia Angulo

Psychologist

Patricia León

Psychologist

Raymundo Perez

Mentor Children's Circle

Ariana Guido

Legal Counselling Project

Wendy Abarca

I am the answer

Yoselin Lopez

Tutoring Classes

Wendy Valverde

Professional Training

Saray Barrantes

Girls’ Club

Micaela Ribeiro

Movement Classes

Lucia Castro

CEPIA's Brasilito Coordinator

Alejandra McLean

Brasilito Project

Dimitris Kyriakoulis

English Teacher

Geneva Garcia Ellen

Vida Mujer Project

Gina Malavassi

Communication

Raquel Aguilar

Brasilito Project

Rodolfo Monge

Accounting

Sugey Alvarez

Girls’ clubs

Tricia Araya

Women Entrepreneurs

Juan Labra

Transportation

Volunteers

CEPIA seeks long-term (min 12 weeks) volunteers with commitment, high ethical standards, and strong social engagement. There are lots of different projects going on at the same time at CEPIA. After your interview (selection process), you will receive a document about the projects and tasks for volunteers by email. At first, you will integrate in many different activities and programs for one week. We are looking for flexibility and curiosity from our volunteers. Go with the flow, connect with everyone, and participate fully in each moment!

There are different options for you to be a part of:

You can join an existing class, help the teacher or a volunteer leading the class, and maybe take over the class if the teacher or the volunteer leaves.
You can ask what activity you could realize according to your talents or interests: for example, an English class, yoga, arts & crafts, computer classes, environmental education, or sports,
You can make your very own project. Just make a proposal, we will help you.

The advantage of the third option is that you can do what you like. You can structure your project the way you like it. Brainstorm ideas before you come to CEPIA and communicate what you would like to do. In that way, you won’t lose time and you will be able to connect your passion with volunteering. The golden rule here is that everything is possible; you just have to come up with ideas. On Mondays our executive director meets with all the full-time volunteers. We strongly advice you that you get to a good level of conversational Spanish before coming to CEPIA. It is hugely helpful and necessary to communicate with staff and children. Most teachers and children do not speak English.

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