The Rodriguez family works with El Puente – The Bridge, a non-profit organization. The Bridge provides educational assistance, food assistance, and microloans mainly to indigenous people in the southeastern part of Costa Rica. The group’s goal is to help people help themselves to self-sufficiency. See them by visiting www.elpuente-thebridge.org

The parents moved their family out of the interior, closer to the border of the indigenous Bribri reserve, so their children could get an education. In the interior, they had to walk for four hours to get a bus that would take them to school.

Now, when the weather and the rivers they have to cross allow it, they take the 1 hour and 20 minute walk to school. Stopping at The Bridge along the way, they wash off the jungle mud, and change into their school uniforms.

Public education is free in Costa Rica , but there are expenses. Suiting up for the year can cost at least $75 per student, and ongoing expenses for “copies” and “exams”, and “food” can bring the annual total to $180. For a family such as the Rodriguez, with 4 children in school, the annual total is $720, or $72 per month in the 10-month school year. That is equivalent to about 7 ½ days of work per month for father Abelio to pay for the children’s attendance at school. Other families can have as many as 7 to 10 children at once in school, and the costs are more than they can afford.

The Bridge provides varying degrees of assistance for families, including both the startup and ongoing costs, until the parents can develop a self-sustaining income that includes covering their own educational expenses. This can be important, because in Costa Rica keeping children out of school is considered child abuse, and the authorities may take such children out of their families.

The Bridge also offers a place for kids to “hang out” while waiting for parents to walk back to their jungle home. They can do homework, use computers, just take time to be kids.

If necessary, The Bridge makes microloans to allow a family to develop a self-sustaining business. Abelio, the father in this family, is well on his way to self-sufficiency through a growing property care business without such a loan.

Along with basic education and sustainability, The Bridge dishes out a heavy dose of hope – hope for the future of the individuals and families who come through The Bridge, and hope that the individuals will be able to successfully “bridge” the gap, living in their own rich culture, yet learning and earning in a far different culture outside the Reserve. We also encourage the people we serve to stay in touch with their own culture, rich in lore, including their own language and a detailed knowledge of using medicinal plants to cure just about anything. The Bridge works with a Bribri Curandero in an ongoing tutoring program for just this purpose.

El Puente-The Bridge is a non-profit project of the United Centers for Spiritual Living, headquartered in Burbank , California . Tax deductible donations can be made through the group’s website by visiting www.elpuente-thebridge.org The Bridge also sells various products in its online store, at www.elpuente-thebridge.org/store . While not tax deductible, revenue from these sales is used to support the activities of El Puente in Costa Rica . Contact El Puente directly by emailing barrystevens@earthlink.net or by calling toll-free from the USA to Costa Rica 1-866-462-7585.