We are on our way, with the Municipality of Aserrí, to three remote communities of the canton: El Alto, La Laguna and Parritilla. Thanks to our partners, P&G and Masks for Everyone, we will deliver personal hygiene packages and masks to 420 people in these communities.

This Monday, CADENA volunteers attended the Prevention and Community Containment COVID-19 Campaign, in La Carpio. This initiative was led by the San José Municipality, the Costa Rican Social Service Box, the Ministry of Public Health of Costa Rica and San José’s Municipal Police, as well as local community leaders. Through this campaign we managed to reach 1229 houses in 942 neighborhoods, as well as 163 businesses. We provided information about COVID-19, dengue and chikungunya. People experiencing some sort of symptoms where referred to the medical clinics. CADENA delivered facemasks as part of our alliance with Facemasks for all Costa Rica, reaching the most vulnerable and poor population.

Today we participated in a prevention and awareness-building COVID-19 campaign in Parvas. This was an interinstitutional activity in coordination with the San José Municipality, the Nacional Emergency Commission, the Health Ministry, Costa Rica’s Social Security, San José’s Police and volunteers. We visited house by house asking if anyone had symptoms. If someone answered positively, we filled out a reference ticket for a COVID-19 test. We also talked about general prevention hygiene and distributed protex soap and cereal bars. We’d like to thank BICENTURY COSTA RICA and La Isleña Distributor for their donations. We will visit the La Carpio neighborhood in the next mission. When we work together, we are stronger!

It was a long ride, but full of expectation. We boarded a bus from Buseta de los Orange Taxis—one of our partners—and then another car in the municipality of Buenos Aires to cover a total of 5 hours of roads. 

This was CADENA’s first mission catered to indigenous communities in the south of Costa Rica. P&G San José Costa Rica  delivered Always sanitary pad in the Cantón of Buenos Aires of Puntarenas.  Many girls and adolescents skip classes on a regular basis due to a lack of these hygiene pads. Always believes that puberty is the best moment to help build up a woman’s self-esteem; this is why we delivered 8,000 sanitary pads to 300 young women. 

We visited the Rural Tsikriyök Liceum, in Yuavin, a Bribri de Cabagra indigenous community. The last 27  km where spent on a slippery and muddy road. Sonia Rojas, the school’s principal, told us that students walk 2 hours to get there. The building is new but there is no internet, no electricity, no running water and no phone signal. 

“These are very por families and the pandemic has made everything much worse,” states Mrs. Roja, “we only see our students once a month, we can’t meet with them virtually.”

Besides  battling COVID, the community suffers from gastrointestinal diseases due to lack of access to clean water. Besides delivering CR Masks for Everyone to families we donated 15 water filters and taught the locals how to use them. Thanks to Labimed Clinical Analysis we were able to measure the quality of the water. We also talked to the girls privately to discuss sexual hygiene and other topics. 

After this we visited the San Rafael de Cabagra and Salitre Lyceums, communities located closer to Buenos Aires with better access to health, communications and internet—but with the same water and road issues. 

Rafael Delgado—the Coordinator of the Local Council of Indigenous Briby Education and board member of the San Rafael de Cabagra Rural Liceum— believes that there are still many educational obstacles in the community.  “We need to integrate the Bribri language in the curriculum so that it is not lost forever,” Delgado stated, “and also integrate health, education, environmental, sexual education and pandemic-related topics.” This was a truly an enriching experience. We were in awe with the local leaders and like to thank José Rocas, mayor of Buenos Aires, in the Buenos Aires Municipality, for helping us with the transportation. Also, Sonia Rojas for all her assistance. The mission was full of life lessons.