Peace through Yoga

PTY Global Projects

COSTA RICA

Carbon 1 is a small village two miles inland from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. There are about 300 inhabitants spread throughout a large area of approximately one square mile.

The current primary elementary school, which was built in 1983, receives partial aid from the Government as well as some of the parents of the students There are approximately twenty children registered at the school who are between the ages of seven and thirteen. There is only one teacher/principal, Maritza, who travels from Limon. The present infrastructure includes a building that has two classrooms and a separate, smaller building, where kids have their meals.

Peace through Yogas History at Carbon Elementary School

Peace through Yoga has repeatedly brought groups who volunteer at the school implementing items such as:

dental/fluoride treatments

painting classrooms/iron window grids and school sign

planting trees due to erosion

installing new water well and new roof

delivering school supplies and Spanish/English books

teaching English

giving yoga classes

taking children on field trips

providing sports activities and equipment

hosting holiday parties, including Valentines Day, Easter and Halloween

providing backpacks and soccer uniforms to all children

Uniforms and standardized books have been provided to all the children. This will continue to be a priority as we maintain a relationship with the school.

Current Needs and Funding Projects:

$240 annual tuition for students to go to high school for one year. This includes tuition, uniform, and books.

$140 for a bike for a student to get to school. Currently they walk for miles and/or do not attend many days.

$40 per child per year for uniform and school books

El Yue Womens Center

Peace through Yoga formed a partnership with the Asociacin de Familias Productoras El Ye. El Ye is a United Nations funded community center located in the small farming community of Carbon #1, Talamanca, Costa Rica. The center invites international student groups to come and stay to learn about Costa Rican culture and environment, offers a library to enrich the minds of the local community, and serves as a center for community dialogue to discuss problems around physical, environmental, and economic health. Peace through Yoga has empowered Addison Demaree, a recent Loyola University graduate, to teach English, engage with the community to discover need, and to create a sponsorship program to aid the students in transportation and attending High School. She offers five English and two Yoga classes every week to the children and adults of the community, hoping to aid in increasing economic health and creating positive memories around learning.

Needs:

English Teacher salary is $600 a month

The English teachers responsibility also includes the library, reading to the children, managing book lending process, and implementing other unique activities such as art, sports, yoga, drama, etc.

Library

The goal for the library is to have a minimum of 500 books by the fall of 2012.

Bookshelves and tubs for books have been purchased providing additional storage space in the library.

Computers

One of our goals is to add computers and training in the library.

Future potential projects:

Womens revenue project

School van

Playground and/or a Preschool

Workshops, such as, womens finance, child rearing, adolescent girls self image, etc.

More information on the Founder of El Yue

Rosa Emelia Cruz Cambronero

Asociacin de Familias Productoras El Ye, Founder

Association of Productive Families

"Sin agua, no hay vida. Sin tierra, no hay paz."

"Without water, there is no life. Without land, there is no peace."

Mi Experiencia - My Experience

Every day I walk into the beautiful rustic library prepared to share my native tongue with a curious group of young learners, and every day I gain more from their smiling faces than I can imagine they gain from mine. My work in Costa Rica has served as an opportunity to grow intellectually, spiritually and professionally. Through teaching English, I am learning Spanish. Through giving to this deserving community, my soul is being nourished. Through working with such inspiring women, I am convinced that I can do whatever it is I decide to do. I am empowered by the Women Like Us foundation to offer my heart, my culture, and my language, while soaking in the benefits of being immersed in a different world. I offer English and Yoga classes at El Ye, a small but powerful community center founded by Rosa Emelia Cruz Cambronero in Carbon #1, Talamanca, Costa Rica. Una mujer valiente. A brave woman.

Growing Up in the real Costa Rica

Rosa Emelia was born el 3 de diciembre en el ao 1962 to a happy mother and father in Palmaras de Alajuela, a coffee growing district in Central Costa Rica. Growing up along with eleven siblings in a small Tico (Costa Rican) style house, they often slept on the floor and went to bed hungry. As I ask Emelia of her childhood, she looks at me with tearful eyes and a grateful smile as she explains "yo s como compartir." (I know how to share.) At age seven, she began working in the coffee fields to help support her family. Earning less than $1 USD per hour, her family was unable to provide ample food for the eleven children. She tells me of the days when they could not afford enough rice and how her mother used to mix sugar and water to substitute for milk.

At age eleven, her family moved to Carbon #1 in Talamanca. This province offers fertile land ideal for farming vegetables, fruits, and chickens. The move was financially trying, but with such low wages, her father was left with little option other than to support his children by growing food. With a small bit of property and the ganas to survive, Emelia's familia began to live off of the land. Emelia worked a part-time waitressing job through her teenage years to contribute, and she watched as Mother Earth saved her family from starvation.

Married Life

At age 20, Emelia entered into matrimony with el amor de su vida (the love of her life). His mother gifted them a small plot of land with a variety of live stock to begin their lives together. Emelia immediately felt the pressure to have many children, as a woman's worth is determined by her ability to care for many nios (children). Having experienced the struggles of a large family first hand, Emelia refused to accept this cultural idea as a factor in determining her value as a woman. She chose to plan her family, a revolutionary idea in Costa Rican culture, and had two beautiful children on her own time.

She and her husband operated a small farm, harvesting yucca, mamones, cacao (chocolate), chayote, tomato, pepper, bananas, and other local vegetables. They also raised gallinas (chickens) and vacas (cows) which gave them meat, dairy, and eggs. Emelia tells me her husband had a good job, making just over $1 USD an hour. She expresses her gratitude for his contribution to the household and for the tierra (land) that supported them.

An Idea was Born

In 1994, Emelia and twelve other women came together to share ideas which formed the foundation of a project. They dreamed of someday having a community center where residents could meet to discuss problems and find solutions. Their goals were to promote healthy lifestyles for the people, protect the environment, and strengthen the local economy. They began to hold monthly meetings at different households in and near Carbon #1.

El Ye, the organization's namesake, is the species of tree used to construct the community's homes and buildings; it is one of Earth's many gifts, providing structure and protecting the family. In 1995, the group completed the paperwork necessary to be recognized as an organization by the Costa Rican government. They were then eligible to apply for government grants and their official status aided in outside interest and support. Rosa Amalia, a supporting founder, was gifted a plot of land by her father. The thirteen women began cultivating the land, organically growing various fruits and vegetables. They began to save money for building a community center by selling organic vegetables to the schools and empananadas to the community at local markets.

By 1998, momentum and excitement were building about the economic prospects of growing organic vegetables and encouraging healthy eating in the community, when they discovered that Amalia's father had sold the land to a third party. After years of dedication in cultivating the land, their project came to a halt.

The women met to discuss the next best course of action, when ten of the thirteen women came forward to say that they did not have their husbands' blessings to participate in a revenue project. Machismo culture in Costa Rica is very prevalent, and the men were ashamed to have their wives working outside of the home. Three women were left. Three women were determined.

Angel Sponsors

In 2000, Rosa Emelia met Luis Mavilo, a Spanish philanthropist, who expressed interest in the project, saw value in its mission, and was impressed by the dedication of the women still involved. He donated 900.000 colones (nearly $2,000 USD), enough to buy a plot of land in Carbon #1 and begin the construction of a community building. Emelia and Amalia made and sold thousands of empanadas to save money to complete the center. In 2003, the United Nations donated $20,000 USD to finish the library and volunteer houses on site.

With the support of these angel sponsors, El Ye has been able to host hundreds of students from across the globe to learn about sustainable living practices in Costa Rica and to study environmental concerns in the area. In turn, volunteers have provided workshops for local community members that encourage their physical, spiritual, and economic health. The completion of the library has encouraged la comunidad to promote environmental literacy, to learn English, and to fulfil their intellectual curiosity.

El Ye center has recently invited Women Like Us Foundation into its project. The foundation has donated books and supplies to the library to support my work as the English teacher, and there is nothing more beautiful than watching my children excitedly search through the bins for their next read. WLU plans to donate computers and offer high school scholarships to cover the cost of transportation, textbooks, and uniforms. We also hope to expand the revenue efforts of El Ye through attracting more voluntourism groups to learn about Costa Rican culture and sustainable living techniques.

La Tierra - The Land

From the steaming barren top of Volcano Arenal to the chorus of thousands of jungle creatures and ever present cycle of death and rebirth, Costa Rica is a land of both beauty and struggle. Rosa Emelia's family improved its quality of life by learning to live off of the land. Encouraging sustainable education and practices allow for other members of her community to feed their families and partake in the joy of being nourished by the fruits of their own labor. El Ye has served as a hub for the people of Carbon #1 to gain physical, financial, and spiritual health; the idea developed organically from simple dialogue to hosting hundreds of volunteers to engage in a cultural exchange. Rosa Emelia has elevated her community through her willingness to determine what it means to be a successful Costa Rican woman and courage to put her ideas into action. The Earth nurtured her and her family in a time of desperate need, and she has dedicated her life to teaching others how to care for our great mother in a way that serves us all.

In Costa Rican Spirit -

iPura Vida!

Pure Life

INDIA

Ramanas Garden: Dr. Prabhavati Dwabha formed Ramanas Garden Home for destitute children in Rishikesh, India approximately 14 years ago as a result of her spiritual practice on the banks of the River Ganga. After meeting the numerous homeless, destitute, and abused children, she decided to make them her lifes work. She has provided a growing number of children with education, nourishment, and a future where they had little or no hope. Prabha has also instituted programs to educate local villages in practices of proper sanitation, safe drinking water, and general health care.

Current Need:

$3000 to complete the last girls dormitory room and furnish with beds.

Women Like Us

Mission: Women Like Us Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspire, empower and mentor women and girls to make a difference globally and locally.

Goals: Our mission is accomplished in a number of ways, including implementing Women Like Us Afternoon Tea and Speakers Series, raising funds for sustainable global projects, supporting women to start their own WLU Chapters, offering short-term humanitarian trips, and through a mentoring program for women and girls.

www.womenlikeusfoundation.org