Support Community Initiatives with your Donation!

Puerto Viejo Satellite is currently supporting the following community initiatives and helping out by processing credit card donations for these initiatives.

Please read the project descriptions below and then choose a project (or two) to help out with your donation!

The schoolkids will appreciate your support!

Annual Donation Drive for School Kids

ATEC is once again coordinating the annual Holiday school supply drive. This year, we will help the Suri School in Upper Talamanca.

There are 100's of kids in Talamanca that need help to purchase their school supplies. School starts in February, but we do the drive now so you can have the opportunity to purchase the gift of education for a local student and then present to the conscientious person you want to honor with that gift.

Levels of donating:

• You can donate the actual materials that kids need by dropping them off at ATEC. Contact [email protected] if for the official list of supplies needed.
• US$1+ buys some pens or a notebook.
• $35 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year!
• $66 buys all of the school supplies for one kid for one year AND their school uniform AND SHOES!
• Or you can adopt a 1.5 kids or whole bunch of kids!

If you're in Puerto Viejo drop off your donations of supplies or cash at the ATEC office. Of if you can't make it there, you can make a credit card donation below and Puerto Viejo Satellite will cover all the fees so that 100% of your donation will make it to the kids.

The lifeguard tower at Cocles Beach.

Support the Cocles Beach Lifeguard Program

Cocles Beach south of Puerto Viejo is the only lifeguard patrolled beach on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica. The program receives no government funding but is funding solely by generous donations by local businesses and residents.

Due to insufficient funds, the program is not always able to operate at full strength and give the support needed.

If you would like to make a one time donation to support the program, you can do so using a credit card below. Puerto Viejo Satellite will cover the credit card processing fees so that 100% of your donation will go to the program.  Local business owners are encouraged to arrange regular monthly support for the program through Eddie Ryan at La Costa de Papito.

Website: www.Cocles.org

Support "The Bridge"

Offers educational assistance, food, and microloans mainly to indigenous people in Costa Rica.  The School Program assists families with educational expenses for young children.  The Food Program provides a gathering place, healthy meals, and additional support on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The Microloan Program provides small loans from $20--$400, with approaches that have been helping people out of poverty globally since 1987. Used together, these programs provide powerful support for families working together toward self-sufficiency.

The Bridge is run by El Puente del Caribe, S. A., a Costa Rican corporation in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, and is a qualified non-profit under US rules.

If you'd like to donate in person, consider bringing things such as school supplies and use it as an opportunity to visit the bridge on your visit.  There is a full list of things they need here.  Or you can make a donation by credit card on their website or below.

Website: www.elpuente-thebridge.org

Support Turtle Preservation Programs

The Widecast organization operates turtle preservation and protection programs at several beaches in the area.

Leatherback, Hawksbill and Green turtles nest in the Gandoca Refuge and Cahuita National Park. Loggerhead turtles are also found in Cahuita. The turtles come to nest at night, digging a nest on the beach to lay their eggs. Both the mothers and the eggs are vulnerable to poachers and preservation programs are critical to guard nesting areas as well as to protect habitat.

You can help out these programs by volunteering, by donating to cover expenses or, if you're visiting in season, by taking a tour of the turtle nesting areas to see the turtles which is run by the Widecast organization.

Support the work of Biological Corridor

Environmental education and the protection of biodiversity are two of the goals of Biological Corridor.

The organization Biological Corridor is commited to the conservation of biodiversity in the Corredor Biológico Talamanca Caribe (CBTC). This is highly important for the continuation of the last big fragment of forest in Costa Rica that is part of a zone of cushioning of the International Park La Amistad, declared patrimony of the humanity by the UNESCO.

Biological Corridor runs a number of important programs in the area in support of this goal:

• Network to Guard Resources: a community network integrated by different people sharing the same objective
• Research: Particularly working on the identification and characterization of some plants and tree species located within the CBTC.
• Payment for Environmental Services: Conservation of forests, reforestation or agro forestal systems. Currently safeguards about 11.000 hectares.
• Recovery of degraded areas
• Nurseries
• Environmental Education
• Recycling: Biological Corridor runs the area recycling programs

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