La Carpio is a squatter community in San Jose, surrounded on two sides by a river and on the third by a large landfill, that arose in the mid-1990s at the height of Nicaraguan illegal immigration to Costa Rica. Around 40,000 people live in the 1 square mile of La Carpio with an average of 6 per "home." Most of the residents in La Carpio do not have titles to their land and live in houses constructed of scrap metal and wood with exposed cement or dirt floors. Over half of the people living in La Carpio are undocumented immigrants from Nicaragua (the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere) and other Central American countries. The majority of its residents live below the poverty line and opportunities for work are few. Those who do find work often work for a third of the pay a Costa Rican would receive with none of the social security and medical benefits Costa Rican workers receive in jobs such as construction, waste collection, and as maids. It is arguably one of the poorest, most violent slums in Costa Rica.
Below are some pictures of La Carpio:
One of the organizations fighting the cycle of poverty and violence in La Carpio is Christ for the City through their New Horizons project. New Horizons has a plot of land at the end of La Carpio where there is a huge field for recreation, outdoor and indoor meeting areas for youth events and educational opportunities, two computer labs, and much more!
There is no high school in La Carpio and so many kids stop going to school after 6th grade because their families either can't afford to send them to a school outside of La Carpio or they just don't. New Horizons offers a systematic way for kids to move through high school by taking classes in each of the materials they need to pass and then taking the tests to pass them. The idea is sort of like a GED. I may help by teaching English through the Institute. Learning English is one of the fastest ways for teens to rise out of poverty because it opens up a wide variety of job opportunities, even without any other formal education.
Additionally, there is a great need for mentors for teen girls who have grown up in neglectful or abusive homes and are often sexually active by age 12 or 13. There are opportunities to form relationships with girls through a Saturday recreation and bible study program, teaching Zumba (which I became licensed to teach in the States), and/or small group discipleship.
Here are some pictures of the Saturday program I was able to volunteer with recently:
To read more about New Horizons, Christ for the City and the two American missionaries I will likely be helping out (Andrea and Seth Sears), please visit their blog: http://richinfaith.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-in-la-carpio.html
Also, take a look at this video made by another missionary who works with New Horizons. He has an amazing skateboard outreach to teen boys, as well as computer program that is providing real and tangible opportunities to learn skills to get better jobs!
No comments:
Post a Comment