OVERVIEW:
There have been community anti-crime organizations in the South Caribbean for years, dealing with crime issues typical of any tourist beach town: assaults, robberies, and less occasionally, attacks of a more violent nature. Attendance at various neighborhood watch groups tended to follow a cyclical pattern that spiked with the occurrence of higher profile crimes then rapidly diminished. 

A meeting in San Jose in 2010 with Jorge Rojas, Director of OIJ, drove home the point that, owing to the extremely low percentage of crimes reported (estimated to be in the mid to low teens), the canton of Talamanca had, on paper at least, one the lowest crime rates in the country. Without the statistics in the form of denuncias, the area received fewer personnel and resources than the conditions in the zone called for.

Community meeting with police

As a response, we created an online database with which the community could report crimes and compile its own statistics, to gain a clearer picture of what was occurring, to identify problem regions and recurring patterns that might aid in prevention, as well as to demonstrate that the incident rate was far greater than was being captured in official numbers. Several barriers existed to adoption, chiefly a strong reluctance, in a town whose economy relies almost solely on tourism, to openly discuss crime for fear of jeopardizing commerce.

A Facebook group was launched, and the ability to see and discuss in near real time how crime is affecting the neighborhood proved a compelling experience.  A consensus developed that there was far more to be gained than lost from this sort of open discussion. The group expanded very rapidly, and people motivated each other to get active in the effort.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY:
Members of the community have met regularly with the Director of OIJ, Ministers of Public Security, Fiscal General, etc in order to bring to attention the needs of the communities Southern Caribbean.  The police chief actively reaches out to the community through regular public meetings and online through the Facebook group.  Similar meetings occur with the Fiscalia.  The Mayor of Talamanca is also very involved, offering full support and participation in the efforts of the local community and maintaining an active Facebook profile.

PROJECTS:
During the past year, Un Caribe Mas Seguro has continued their work and undertaken new projects.  Some highlighted projects:

Online database of Incidents:  This has become the primary source of information used by Fuerza Publica.  The website also shares information on prevention, who to call, how to act and much more information of importance to the local community: http://www.caribeseguro.com

Convenio between CATCCAS and Ministerio de Seguridad Publica: provides a legal framework for binding agreements of cooperation between MSP and the community.

Streetlight project:   a digital inventory map of major streetlights in the region indicating where lights were present, where they needed to be replaced and where they needed to be installed.  This would eliminate some of the “dark zones” where tourists were regularly being assaulted at night.  The map was used to petition ICE into addressing the issues.

Digital map project:  Requested by the Fuerza Publica in order to better identify the local streets and location of residents and businesses.  A new police officer receiving a call to person x’s house will be able to pull up that person’s location on a computer screen at the delegation and speed the response time.

Rise in Official Denuncias:  Victims who saw little hope of individual justice started filing denuncias for the benefit to the community as a whole that arises from more accurate reporting and statistics.

Police station renovation

Fuerza Publica Capacitacion:  Security training program and certification for businesses was offered in June.

Beach Guard Program:   ARECHIPU – Association of Residents Playa Chiquita Punta Uva have organized to hire three local beach guards.  Guards patrol the beaches, caution tourists who are not being careful and report suspicious behavior to police.   Since the inception of the program, the previous average of 1 incident per day has been reduced to nearly zero.

Victim’s Assistance:  The Victim Assistance Program helps both locals and tourists through an often complicated judicial process. It supports tourist victims with translation services, helps to file denuncias, helps to cancel stolen credit cards, contacts embassies, offers transportation to OIJ, etc.  In the case of more serious crimes, the program helps to coordinate additional nights at hotels and meals in local restaurants so the victim can complete the denuncia process without incurring additional expenses. The program has been successful in turning victims’ encounter with crime from “a very negative experience in a foreign country” to “the community cares – what a great place”.

Hotel and Business Certification Program:  Project under development to establish guidelines and a certification program in crime prevention for local hotels and businesses.

LESSONS LEARNED AND BEST PRACTICES:

Law enforcement in Costa Rica faces the reality of needing to do more with less, and without the communication, cooperation, and trust of the communities they work in, they will be at a grave disadvantage.

We consider a program like ours critical to the success of citizen security, and elements that in our experience are essential are:

1)  Forum: enables the community to be in direct contact with each other and with law enforcement.  We are fortunate to have a police chief, Leandro Chaverri, who was highly receptive to the idea and very motivated, and we used Facebook because of the high adoption rate and its “stickiness”.

2) Incident Database: a tool for the community to keep track of what is occurring is key. As well, it demonstrates to law enforcement that the community is a serious partner, and is dynamically and independently evaluating their work.

3) Regular Meetings: While the communication afforded through the internet is extremely powerful, face-to-face meetings are critical as well.

Article by Eric Haller. Eric Haller has lived in Cocles for 5 years, plays music, and can be found blogging from time to time at erichaller.com or twittering @haller

The restaurant is was one of the recipients of the “Aportes al Mejoramiento de la Calidad de Vida” prize for 2011.

Other awards were given to a community leader in Alajuela, a team of veterinarians from the Universidad Nacional, a group of clowns and a recycling program.

The awards were decided on by a committee from Costa Rica’s ombudsman and from the public universities.

More: La Nación: Autoridades premian aportes para mejorar la calidad de vida

A big thank you to the Puerto Viejo School kids, who spent their unscheduled day off from school with us in the unrelenting heat. Way to go!

These community events do not only rely on the people to come out and spend their day picking up trash, we also need the local businesses to get involved. I am happy to say that the support from the local businesses was amazing! It is truly a great feeling to have companies and organizations like ATEC, Banana Azul, Cantik, Coco Loco Lodge, El Diamante, Exploradores, Farmacia Amiga, Interbus, Koki Beach Restaurant, Supermercado Old Harbour and Terraventuras which all pulled together to help make the event a great success.

Special thanks to Terra Nostra for coming to support us for this day! Their insight of how important the clean-up of our beaches is, was very inspiring. They instructed us on not just picking up trash, but also on how to sort trash correctly. I guarantee you I will never look at trash the same way again.

After collecting all this trash it had to go somewhere. Well that was when Reci Caribe and Municipalidad de Talamanca took over. After the trash was sorted correctly all the recyclable items were documented and then loaded onto a truck and were sent to the local recycling center, all the remaining trash was transported away by Municipalidad de Talamanca to a local land fill.

All the collected trash collected at this beach clean up is going to be reported to the Ocean Conservancy and the data is going to be added to their world wide program “International Costal Cleanup 2011”.

Residents and local businesses of Puerto Viejo really proved that even the smallest communities can make a difference when everyone works together. Once again great job everyone! Lets all continue to keep our beautiful beaches clean!

You can see more photos and more information about the results at the facebook album.

Article by Nina Neidhart. Nina is the general manager of Gecko Trail Adventures, a Puerto Viejo based tour company which offers packages, transportation, tours and activities throughout Costa Rica. They specialize in helping clients to set up a customized and authentic experience of the real Costa Rica. More information at GeckoTrail.com.

Local tour company Gecko Trail Adventures is organizing a beach cleanup day on Sept 30 with local school kids.

Lead by example! Keep the beach clean.

The company strives to actively participate in community projects that promote a sustainable development of the local area. In this effort, they encourage their employees to look beyond their day-to-day tasks and work on projects benefiting their community. One of these endeavors is the beach clean-up they are organizing with children from the local school along with staff from Gecko Trail Adventures and Hotel Banana Azul for September 30th.

The project was made possible thanks to supplied donations from local businesses and various providers Gecko Trail Adventures works with. The trash collected will be counted with the help of Terra-Nostra. The results will be reported to Ocean Conservancy to be able to have a document that governments, organizations and companies can use to check the Waste World Marine Index.

If you find yourself in the Puerto Viejo area on September 30th you are very welcome to join them. The meeting point will be at the beach in front of Hotel Banana Azul at 8:00am.

Article by Gecko Trail Adventures. Gecko Trail Adventures started 3 years ago with 2 staff and a tiny tour desk in a local hotel. The main objective was, and still is, to offer good quality and reasonably priced tours to clients that wish to visit the Caribbean as well as all other areas of Costa Rica. Today they employ 14, local Caribeños as well others from around Costa Rica and around the world, who devote themselves to ensuring that everyone has the best possible experience while visiting this beautiful country. Their goal is to provide customized services that fit each client’s needs, and in this way utilize local guides and small companies and hotels to be able to offer an authentic Costa Rica experience. More information at www.gecktrail.com.

Police and protesters today, photo courtesy of Periódico El Limonsense

There have been several road blocks reported that started last night by protesters who are apparently angry over the government’s plans to restrict development and demolish several existing hotels and homes within the Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge that do not conform to the plan.

There have been reports of felled trees and rocks blocking the road at several locations. At the worst location, the bridge at Hone Creek heading towards Cahuita, there were also burning tires and black smoke could be seen from miles away.

Some of the roadblocks have now been cleared but others are apparently still up and riot police were called in to clear the protest.

Formalizing of the plans for the refuge is a long simmering issue within the community and the hotels Las Palmas and Suerres have been threatened with demolition.

More:

• Periódico El Limonsense: Vecinos de Gandoca, Manzanillo, protestan contra expropiaciones
• Teletica 7: Desalojo en el Caribe Sur enfrenta a vecinos con las autoridades
• Talamanca News Feb 8: Is there too much protected land in Talamanca?

Local individuals and businesses have begun a volunteer led effort to renovate the Puerto Viejo Police station with the aim of making the station a better and more efficient place to work.

The effort is being taken as one of the many efforts to improve security in the area.

The project is aiming to do it’s work primarily through donated labor and materials.

\Here is the list of materials that are needed to get started on the renovation of the police station. So now is the time to go look in your bodega and see if you have anything to contribute. Even if you have things that are not on the list and think they can be of use, let us know. We are also looking for any skilled carpenters, welders, plumbers and electricians, as well as general laborers, that are willing to donate their time. Please give Rami Zein a call, 8985-6652, to let us know what you can contribute.

Wood – Laurel
7 pieces 2” x 4” x 4 barras
2 pieces 2” x 10” x 2 barras
200 barras of ½” x 2” (for lattice work)
20 barras of 2” x 3”

Metal
24 sheets corrugated metal (3.66 m) #28
15 square steel structural tubes, galvanized 2 x 3 x 1/16
5 square steel structural tubes, galvanized 3 x 3 x 1/16
3 zinc roofing covers (1.83 m) #28
2 welded wire mesh (2.35 x 6m)
5 welding sticks – Hilco 6013-3/32
8 1” round metal tubes (for cell bars)
6 rectangular metal tubes (1.2 x 25.4 x 50.8mm)

Electrical/Plumbing
31 tubes for electrical cables – ½”
18 unions for electrical cable tubes – ½”
25 curved unions for electrical cable tubes – ½”
70 m cable #12
50 m cable TSJ 2×12
15 m cable TSJ 3×12
1 breaker #15
4 breakers #20
12 mountable light sockets 4”
12 double outlets
3 ½” PVC stopcocks
1 pump designed for wells – half horsepower with a 20 liter tank

Fibrolit
10 sheets – 12mm
6 sheets – 9 mm

Paint
2 gallons oil-based paint – dark blue
3 gallons oil-based paint – white
2 quarts paint for metal – red
1 liter turpintine

Nails/Screws/etc.
100 insulated plastic staples with nails for electical cable
50 1” screws for gipsun
200 2” drillbit screws for metal roofing
Concrete
3 bags of Concretemix
10 cement panels (1.1 m)

Additional
2 rolls of electrical tape #33
4 3” paintbrushes
1 14” disc to cut metal
1 9” disc to cut concrete
2 heavyduty padlocks with 2 6” padlock bases
3 pairs of metal hinges B13 industrial
1 4oz container of PVC glue
4 meters of gravel

Table
We need a carpenter who can build a long table for eating – wood provided
8 plastic chairs

Money
Cash donations are welcomed. Although we are hoping to do this project mostly through donated materials and labour, we may still have to buy some items and hire some specialized labour. Every little bit helps. Donations can be made to the CATCAS Banco de Costa Rica account or Puerto Viejo Satellite will process credit card donations and pass them on to the project net of credit card fees, just go to the donate page and choose other project to support.

And a big THANK YOU to community members who have already donated:
Manuel Pinto, Nick Varnum, Janet Jones, Rami Zein, Blanca Widmer, Clint Kapp, Nina Neidhart, Liam Montgomery, Selda Kmc

As of June 5, the program account had a deficit balance of 24,127 colones and generally runs short about 75,000 colones each month unless there are special donations or fundraising events to cover the difference.

The lifeguard program receives no government support, it is supported only by donations from supporting businesses and individuals.

Please see the www.Cocles.org page for the latest information on the program and which businesses are regular supporters.  Let local businesses you see on the list know that you appreciate their support for the program which has saved many lives in its almost 10 years of existence.

To make a donation, the donation page gives options for how you can support the program through regular monthly donations or via a one-time bank deposit or credit card donation (Puerto Viejo Satellite will process any donations received and pass them on to the program).

The mouth-watering smells were surpassed only by the taste of this internationally diverse buffet supplied by parents and available to visitors at modest prices. The event was organised to raise funds for further expansion and improvements at this well respected non-profit school.

Those attending were treated to a varied musical and dance programme featuring, amongst others, soloist Ed Mundo accompanied on the electric piano by Silvia, his wife, who is also music teacher at the school. Ed’s voice and the music filled the newly built classroom with wonderful renditions of a Bolivian song “Kapuri” followed by “Alfonsine y el Mar” and finishing with a melodic “Granada”.

However, the fun had only just begun! A Flamenco group of pupils gorgeously costumed in black and red, showed rhythm and flair, which suggested extensive rehearsal and their obvious enjoyment was matched by that of the audience.

Other acts included pupils singing ambitious and spirited versions of pop songs, enthusiastically performed to toe-tapping beats.

The evening was well attended not only by parents and friends but also by well-wishers showing support for this worthwhile cause. Centro Educativo is a non-profit organisation committed to continuous improvement of the educational standards offered to the children of this area. To achieve this, facilities need to be constantly upgraded and expanded.

Can YOU help build the next classroom?

Absolutely any Donation is helpful: just think what a difference it could make to these pupils schooldays if every person in the Puerto Viejo area gave a small amount of money!

If you can help with a donation, please email the school secretary, Stephanie Achenbaum at the following email address: asocepp@ymail.com or contact the school by telephone at 2750-0754.  You can also follow them on facebook.

Article by Zoë Courtier. Zoë along with her husband Tom Keller are the proprietors of Geckoes Rainforest River Lodge. Two luxurious holiday houses with private plunge pools in a magnificent rainforest and river setting minutes from Playa Cocles. More information at www.geckoeslodge.com

THANK YOU on behalf of all the children at Centro Educativo in Playa Chiquita!

The Recycling Alliance has expanded the types of solid waste that it is collecting on the Caribbean Coast. Nearly everything can now be recycled. Recycle for a safer community and environment!

The following clean and separated items are now accepted:

• Glass bottles (topless)
• Aluminum and clean metal cans
• Plastic Bottles Pet (#1)
• and all other plastics; separated and CLEAN: jugs,gallons, food containers, bags from the super markets,
• Tetrapak! AKA Wine boxes or juice boxes and that metal-plastic bags examples: bags from coffee, powered milk, cookie and potato chip wrappers if they are that shiny metal!
• Cardboard, dry, separated, and broken down
• Office paper, dry separated packed in plastic bags, remove staples please
• Newspaper and magazines! Dry and separated
• Car batteries
• Used cooking oil

Collection Schedule:

Mondays: From Cahuita to Hone Creek

Tuesdays: From Manzanillo to Rockin’ Jay’s on the edge of Puerto Viejo

Wednesdays: Puerto Viejo to Black Beach

Thursdays: Collections from Banana Farms

Fridays: 1^st and 3^rd of the month: BriBri, 2^nd of the month: Gandoca, 4^th of the month: to the Indigenous Territory including Volio, Rancho Grande, Shiroles, Suretka, Bambu, Chase

Businesses and individuals can bring their recyclable materials to the Solid Waste Transfer Center in Patiño any time. The Center is open during normal business hours.

The Recycling Alliance is sponsoring an event on Saturday, the 31^st of July at the Super Hone Creek starting at 9AM. The event is the first of several called “Talamanca Reciclando por la Vida” Or “Talamanca Recycling for Life”. It’s a grand opening of a community recycling deposit at the Super in Hone Creek. There will be music and information. Bring in your clean, separated recyclables and learn more about what’s going in with recycling in Talamanca.

Due to the new Integrated Waste Management Bill passed in Costa Rica in May, 2010, separation of solid waste is required for households as well as businesses (see article below…) The Recycling Alliance encourages other communities and community members to create their own community recycling points or “Puntos Verdes.”

More information is available on all these initiatives at www.greencoast.com.

The Tourism Association of the South Caribbean (CATCAS) is offering free English course to employees of its members. The 3 hour/twice weekly courses begin Tuesday July 13 at 8:30am and will continue Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 3 to 4 months.

El Cámara de Turismo de Caribe Sur les informara a todos los interesados que el curso gratis de ingles practico se iniciara el próximo martes 13 de julio a las 8:30 am. Los clases continuaran cada martes y jueves para 3 o 4 meses. Están gratis para empleados de los asociados de CATCAS.

The courses will take place at Koki Beach Restaurant in Puerto Viejo and will be taught by Steven Polk. Los cursos estaran en Restaurante Koki Beach en Puerto Viejo. El maestro sera Steven Polk.

For more information or to register call 2223 1213 during office hours or email turismocaribesur@yahoo.com. Para más información o para registrar llame a 2223 1213 (hrs de oficina) o envía correo electrónico a turismocaribesur@yahoo.com.