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RAINSONG TO SPONSOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS IN SOUTHERN NICOYA PENINSULA OF COSTA RICA

17.12.09

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Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary Association, in conjunction with the Greenwave Foundation and BREATHE Foundation, is launching a uniform and scholarship program in the Southern Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica for students that are unable to cover the costs of tuition, uniforms and materials. The ultimate goal of Rainsong's program is to create ambassadors within the community that will spread knowledge and awareness about local conservation issues and their solutions locally and also eventually in other communities in Costa Rica and beyond.

“As the director of the Carmen Lyra School of Cobano, which is the largest primary school in the district of Cobano. We have a body of 234 students most of which are children from families of limited economic resources. Although education in Costa Rica is free, mandatory and financed by the state, government funding does not meet the complete requirements for the children, which creates an enormous burden for the parents. For this reason, we ask for your collaboration in helping the children of our institution continue their education.”

Fernando Quesada Lopez, M.S. - Director, Carmen Lyra School of Cobano.

To people that are interested in helping many students who wish to continue their secondary education, children in Costa Rica are not required to pay to attend public school, but the fact is they do have to purchase their own uniforms, books and other materials necessary for their education. This is a hardship for many families, and prevents many students from attending public school. We hope you will help them with these costs and thus encourage more young people to continue with their secondary education.

Noylin Salas Araya, Administration of the Technical High School, Counseling/Assistance Office

RAINSONG TO SPONSOR PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STUDENTS

Privately funded through donations, the Rainsong initiative provides funding for a number of students based on the level of funding they can secure. The system is overseen though Rainsong and Greenway in cooperation with local schools and provides the following services:

The Rainsong Uniform and High School Scholarship program is two fold:

1. Free uniforms for public primary school students - we wil provide uniforms for elementary school children in our area whose families have limited resources, especially families headed by single mothers or grandparents raising their grandchildren.
2. High school scholarship program - we will provide tuition and fees necessary for Rainsong's selected sponsored students in 6th grade whose families cannot afford to pay for their attendance in colegio [high school - 7th grade & on].

These sponsored students will also enjoy many other benefits from their involvement in the Rainsong Scholarship Program:

1. Rainsong volunteers will provide each sponsored student with private tutoring in English, math, and any other subject giving them difficulty.
2. They will receive intensive education involving global conservation issues so that they can begin to share their knowledge with the students in their area's schools in presentations organized and supervised by Rainsong staff, using the world globes provided by Greenwave as teaching tools.
3. They will receive training in reforestation and gardening techniques by assisting with the collection of saplings in the forest, bagging the saplings, upgrading the trees to larger bags when necessary, caring for vegetable gardens and fruit orchards at the Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary in Cabuya, and other activities that will teach them valuable skills that would be assets in the future for a profession as a biodynamic gardener/landscaper or provide them a background for a career as a conservationist/reforester.
4. They will receive hands-on training in both animal rescue and animal husbandry at Rainsong.
5. A penpal program: we already have a U.S. school ready to be penpal friends. The penpal program will be online in order to also teach computer skills. The program is also another great way to teach our sponsored students English since the students from the U.S. will be writing initially in English.
6. Rainsong's sponsored students and their families will be involved in the Rainsong sea turtle protection project.

Your donations to help this cause would be greatly appreciated, and invested wisely in the education of the future guardians of Costa Rica. For interested parties please contact:

Mary Lynn Perry Henry
President of Rainsong Wildilfe Sanctuary Association
rainsongwildlifesanctuary (at) gmail.com
www.costaricaanimals.org
www.rainsongsanctuary.com

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