Project Launch:

The Escuela Boca de Gallardo, which serves 74 students from kindergarten to sixth grade, is 15 minutes from the largest urban area on the Peninsula Puerto Jimenez in Costa Rica. Many students who attend the school come from financially disadvantaged families where parents or grandparents work in agriculture or construction and others are the children of guides and parents who work in the tourist industry. The class differences are obvious in the quality of school uniforms, snacks and school materials. The school has acquired most of what it has by hard work, persistence, and a can-do attitude, but asked for World Connect’s support in 2011 to help plant an organic garden, a stepping stone to a more environmentally conscious community. With a $460 grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program as well as support from other nonprofit organizations and technical support from Peace Corps Volunteers, students were able to make their organic garden dream a reality.