PEB students taking notes during an outdoor class.
We are very pleased to announce that our project “Help Rural Costa Rica School Kids Get Back Outside” has been fully funded. We are so grateful to the many people who supported this crowdfunding campaign on GlobalGiving, and to the International Conservation Fund of Canada (ICFC), which not only gave generously to help us reach our goal of $18,000, but also gave additional funding to meet all the Programa de Educación Biológica’s (PEB) immediate equipment needs. We are in the process of collaborating with PEB to finalize the list and begin to purchase the many items as soon as possible. As one of the teachers said, upon hearing the news, “A thousand thanks on behalf of all the boys, girls, teachers and parents of all the communities that are in PEB.”
PEB annually brings more than 2,000 students into Área de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG); the program has become a vital link between wild nature and the formal Costa Rican education system, and now, the world of virtual learning. As ACG Research Co-Coordinator Róger Blanco Seguro says, “PEB is restoring the biological understanding of its neighbors with the aim of creating a community that can make better-informed environmental decisions in the future.”
The PEB teachers continue to teach classes virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but hope to return to in-person classes early in 2022, depending on the behavior of the pandemic and decisions by the Costa Rica Ministry of Education. In the meantime, the new funding will be of great use to both the online and the eventual in-person and outdoor teaching.
Again, thank you to all who donated. The students, teachers, and parents of PEB thank you!