Children in the neighborhood of Los Cipreses are growing their forest as their urban community in San José, Costa Rica embraces restoration efforts.

The opportunity to walk and get muddy with members of the community and watch a dream evolve, has been a highlight for collaborators of IAFN throughout the year.

Friendships have consolidated and intentions are flourishing. In our June bulletin we wrote about the planting of 250 trees along the banks of Costa Rica´s River Torres Urban Biological Corridor, as well as the raising of the Blue Ecological Flag awarded to the community, now flying at the entrance of the barrio.

Intentions of opening a children’s library to accompany the environmental education and restoration efforts have come to fruition thanks to generous donations of books and bookcases from dear friends. Once a week children and young adolescents are invited to spend time with books, listen to a story, and receive help with their homework and school projects. Kimborey, whose daughter, Kenyelin, is pictured playing the cello in the photograph below, opens the local association building twice a week, always with fun activities and handicrafts.

We are thankful for the generous donations of BOTH Ends, the Konningschool small grants fund and Thomson Reuters (TR Costa Rica office). TR made a generous donation to the community, which includes volunteer time in the community, twice a month, helping with the building of trails and other prioritized tasks.

Konningschool supported a visit of 7 children from the community to IAFN’s Training Center in Londres, Quepos, where they were treated to a walk in the forest, a dip in the pool, and a bird watching tour led by Esteban Bekins. We had so much fun! Both ENDS is supporting efforts that will lead to continued work alongside the community, especially in support of the women and girls who are building a “barrio” they can be proud of.

With the support of our friend Felipe Barrantes, an architect with a passion for landscape design and analog forestry, we look forward to the new year which will bring closer collaborations with other Costa Rican environmental organizations and AF practitioners, as we launch at time of closing of our bulletin, a Costa Rican National Analog Forestry Network. More on our objectives to soon follow.