With a mission to contribute to our host community, but with no funds available, we started our ‘community service’ by members rolling up their sleeves and transforming a neglected jungle into a pleasant garden for residents of Hogar Betania, a home for aged citizens in San Isidro del General. 

Ten years on, we’re very proud of our achievements:

• Raising over $2.000 for Hogar Betania and giving them equally valuable professional and practical support
• Developing a mobile library service for junior/elementary school children, which culminated in our donating over 1.700 books to over 1.200 children in 16 schools, many in isolated rural communities
• Providing a monthly programme of fun activities for girls at a local home, Hogar Madre Del Retendor
• Supporting the Asociacion de Mujeres Generaleñas, a wonderful voluntary organization which provides a range of support and development services for women who are victims of desertion or domestic violence
• Responding to requests for other good causes or emergencies
• The 2019-2020 project "Going to the Dogs" has provided 682 pounds of Dog food to shelters and has raised  ¢1,000,000.00 or approximately $1,700.00 USD for veterinary services, neutering, and caring for stray animals.

Many of our members have expressed concern about the number of starving, abandoned, and stray dogs in our communities. For this reason, we decided our 2019 PZIWC project would be “Going to the Dogs”. We decided to address 3 aspects of this issue: spaying and neutering and veterinary care; promotion of adoption and rehoming animals; and providing care for the large number of abandoned dogs in Perez Zeledon.
We provided financial assistance to Dr. Melena Elizondo who, from her repurposed ambulance, works with the rescues to spay and neuter, vaccinate, and nurse these animals back to health. She also participates in low-cost spay and neuter clinics.  Charlie’s Angels specializes in finding homes, both locally and internationally, for dogs in need of a forever home. It is difficult to tour their facility with owner Tania Capulletti without leaving carrying an adorable puppy under each arm. They received a financial contribution.
Our main project was to provide dog food and fencing around Tierra Fraterna, a permanent home for 95 ‘unadoptable’ dogs –unadoptable simply because they
were no longer cute, adorable puppies. Through fundraising and donations from our members, we provided 310 kg (682 lb) of dog food. The owner, Kemly Jiminez,
wished to fence a large part of her picturesque acreage so these dogs would have a larger area for exercise and play. We provided a large financial contribution to this project following our annual dinner and silent auction fundraising event. Through various fund-raising efforts, we raised ¢1,000,000.00 or approximately $1,700.00 USD for these projects. All of our donations were gratefully received. The love and care these folks provide for these animals are absolutely heartwarming. Some of our members have maintained a relationship with these rescue organizations and continue to provide support.

Hogar Madre Del Redentor

This local home provides care for over 30 girls, most of whom have been subject to physical or emotional abuse owing to domestic violence, alcoholism, or drug addiction.

During 2017-2018 members have provided a monthly program of stimulating, creative and fun activities, including

• selecting and dressing a personal teddy bear
• having a ‘dress up’ day and making a frame to house their souvenir photo
  decorating cupcakes … and enjoying their labours!
• Making friendship bracelets, and decorating fancy boxes for personal possessions

Designing activities which are ‘age-appropriate’ for girls between three and 16 years of age has been demanding but we adults have enjoyed it all as much as the girls!

The Club plans to round off this short project with the donation of a library, again to a setting with no books for the children’s pleasure or wider education. Our fundraising for this project was so successful that we will also provide a library for the boys' shelter, Hogar Ama.

Mobile Library - "La Biblioteca Movil"

Providing textbooks for all their children is a financial challenge for Costa Rican schools, and understandably that is their priority.  Hence, few schools have libraries or access to books for the simple pleasure of reading or supporting the children’s education.

In May 2015, we launched our mobile library service with one book collection circulating round four small rural schools.  Thanks to very willing member drivers, this model was expanded to three collections servicing 9 schools. But we discovered that keeping track of the stock was onerous, both for the club and for the teachers, no matter how committed and supportive they were!

Model two emerged: to provide schools with a small bookcase stocked with around 100 books for their permanent retention.

With a mix of fiction and non-fiction (everything from Harry Potter to books on dinosaurs and the planets!), these proved very popular and successful.  Consequently, in 2017, we collated the mobile collections and distributed them as permanent libraries.

Thanks to the wonderful generosity of our members, and the support of national publishers/booksellers in Costa Rica (most giving us a 30% discount) we ended the project having donated over 1.700 books to over 1.200 children in 16 rural schools.  Most were in isolated coffee-farming communities up remote mountainsides - where the children rarely have access to the city much less bookshops.

Testimonials and regular feedback from our schools has been heart-warming –

• We congratulate the Club on this initiative and their promotion of the love of reading.  The best part of the project is the inclusion of literature recommended by the Ministry of Education
• The motivation that the library has awakened in our children has been amazing!
• The books have been a great help in the classroom for daily reading, the children don’t have access to books like these in their homes.
• From a parent – I can’t believe you immigrants have done this for our children; my daughter is thrilled to have books, thank you from the bottom of my heart

Books continue to come our way and give us the good excuse to return to schools, renew our friendships and enjoy the appreciation of happy and grateful children.

Hogar Betania Nursing Home

Getting dirty doing the gardening was a tremendous bonding (and fun!) experience for members in the early days of the club. Hogar Betania was providing end-of-life care to over 20 residents but with very limited resources, in an impoverished environment.

To raise funds, we developed our now famous bilingual recipe book – ‘There’s a Frog in my Soup’, full of useful information on unfamiliar fruit and vegetable produce, and with recipes for Costa Rica’s traditional fare. An initial 450 were sold, raising over $2.000. This helped to buy a range of modern equipment to improve the quality of rehabilitation and care services for the residents.

Members continued to support the home in many practical ways:

• Painting a colourful mural on a dirty cement wall to brighten the external environment
• Providing a seminar on ‘Safe Manual Handling and Lifting’ – the first training that many care staff had ever received
• Baking cookies and all sorts of goodies for fund-raising and celebratory events
• Delivering fruits and vegetables from member's gardens, which continue to be warmly received

Hogar Betania has a special place in the hearts of many members, who continue to visit and admire the new buildings, comfortable furnishings and high-quality care which the home is now able to provide.

Responding to other community service opportunities

As the Club becomes established and better known in the local community, we receive more requests to help good causes or respond to local emergencies.  Providing ‘more hands’ or a modest amount of cash can make a difference, for example:

• Providing a cake stall at a Lifeguards fundraiser
• Donating Christmas gifts for women and their children and providing back-packs, writing books and pencils for children returning to school through the Asociacion de Mujeres Generaleñas  (Association for Women)
• Joining in community efforts to help victims of storms Otto in 2016 and Nate in 2017 when we collected and helped to distribute food and essential supplies to communities and families suffering the devastating impact of land-slides and flooding
• Donating funds to enable a member to buy instruments and develop music therapy at a local centre for children receiving palliative care
• Having fun joining a Car Rally organized by the Lion’s Club to raise funds for a children’s playground at the city Sports Centre.  Our participation fees have gone to a good cause; we hope to give further support as the project develops.
• Funding production of a leaflet for a celebration of International Women’s Day, hosted by Los Cusingos, a local bird reserve, to honor three women who had been influential in their community

The Government of Costa Rica is committed to ending the use of ‘single-use’ plastics, a policy which is being promoted by Municipalities across the country.  All local authorities are also required to develop recycling services as part of their waste management strategies.

• PZIWC is supporting these endeavours in two ways –Restaurants, where we hold our monthly meetings, are asked NOT to provide plastic straws; they will only do so if a member asks for one
• We collect ‘tetrapacks’, the waxy cartons used for milk, wine, and juices, and deliver them to Chimirol school.  In a programme sponsored by Dos Pinos, the national dairy company, the packs are chopped up and compressed into new tops for school desks and chairs.  Chimirol benefits directly from our donations. We’re very proud that this junior village school in our community has been declared the first ‘carbon neutral’ school in Costa Rica.

Rinse out your packs, squash them flat and bring them along to any club meeting for delivery to Chimirol.

Although there is not yet a municipal ‘dump’ for recycling, the private sector service is thriving – Click Here – to see where you can recycle all types of materials including plastics, metals and even used car oil!