My work with Parque La Libertad in Costa Rica

Parque La Libertad

I want to talk about my work with Parque La Libertad in Costa Rica this past summer. Every day I had to wake at 5am, make a two-hour, two-bus trip to a low-income town called Desamparados. The work of the park was to serve as a bridge to unite all the communities together within the town. It planned to be build upon the area where a previous cement factory used to operate before; much of the work of the park was to remove all the cement and build green areas and buildings for the community to both gather and share spaces and interests, as well as to recreate an ecological fauna for all to share, enjoy and protect. The mission of the park is to attract the youth of the community, specially the high-risk adolescents who are more prone to be exposed to drugs and gangs, and tempted to drop out of school due to poverty and cultural reasons. Thus far, the park wishes to attract the youth, and provide them with social benefits, to safe recreational and artistic activities, and in that way to also guide them to continue their path to education. Although the park is still under construction and still requires mush organization, already you can see the youth gathering around the park attending classes. My work there was to assist the staff, and workers in many projects, from environmental awareness projects and planting trees, to working with kids in activates, and even open up conversations with the teenagers that came to the park. It was a great experience for me because the fact that I am a native Spanish speaker, allowed me directly to integrate myself with the people of community, to understand their goals, aspirations and demands. This also allowed for them to open space of solidarity and hybridity, in where we would build of from our difference and commonalities, The park still needs much work, but It has done so much in the few years since it began, so I highly encourage anyone interested in going to Costa Rica, to check this amazing park this next summer.

 Here's a link to the website.

http://www.parquelalibertad.org