Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary
Donation protected
The Caribbean people of Costa Rica have a unique history of good health and wellness traditions. Lifestyles of healthy behavior are rooted primarily in African and Native American culture. These wellness traditions are being lost due to changes in diet and a continual influence from outside to assimilate.
The Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary is my dream to create a space for the study and conservation of the local healing traditions, the relationships with nature and the formation of healthy communities. I hope to one day provide my daughter with enough information and plant material to allow her to continue the traditions of her great-grandmother, and that her peers, her teachers and her docotrs will all respect her decisions to continue her ancestral healing modalities.
How close are we?
- We have found great team of local people to work with
- We have built a large garden full of local healing plants
- We have built a learning center and library
- We have connected with other groups & institutions
How will your donation be used?
- Ethnobotany training for our 23 year old gardener Maycol Hernandez. Maycol is studying medicinal plants by day at Hidden Garden and going to high school at night, where he is learning the Bri Bri language of his Indigenous ancestors. Maycol has joined our Bri Bri Plant Guide Project as a researcher. His grandfather and other family members support his studies by sharing their ancestral knowledge with him, knowing that he will share it into our free online database. His interest in pursuing a career in traditional agriculture and ethnobotany is unusual in his neighborhood and in the nearby Indigenous reserve.
- Scholarship funds to cover local residents' participation in cultural conservation activities. Hidden Garden's educational program is one of few organizations which aim to introduce the traditional medicine of Latin America into mainstream Alternative Medicine and into academia. Of equal importance is supporting the survival of these traditions within Latin America, which is why we offer free classes, partial scholarships and work-exchange options to those of Latino or Afro-Caribbean ancestry.
- Protecting endangered medicinal plants, conserving stories about them and advocating for their ancestral stewards. Hidden Garden’s Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary includes a local plants nursery, which helps to bring the medicinal plants back into the local home and community gardens.
- Sharing local knowledge back to local people. Research, documentation and dissemination of ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal information relevant to Hidden Garden’s botanical collection, Caribbean, Bri Bri and/or Costa Rican flora.
-Advocating for the re-valuing of Traditional Latino Medicine through academic presentations and Professional Development opportunities. Hidden Garden's courses give local teachers a chance to share their knowledge and benefit financially. They give students from all over the world, an opportunity to experience, and therefore come to appreciate, the ethnomedicine of Latin America. This learning environment is also conducive to the sharing of information among interdisciplinary experts and the creation of original theories and research.
Thank you so much for taking an interest in our cultural conservation project. Please feel free to learn more about The Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary, research this topic in our online library , or explore a visit to our center .
The Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary is my dream to create a space for the study and conservation of the local healing traditions, the relationships with nature and the formation of healthy communities. I hope to one day provide my daughter with enough information and plant material to allow her to continue the traditions of her great-grandmother, and that her peers, her teachers and her docotrs will all respect her decisions to continue her ancestral healing modalities.
How close are we?
- We have found great team of local people to work with
- We have built a large garden full of local healing plants
- We have built a learning center and library
- We have connected with other groups & institutions
How will your donation be used?
- Ethnobotany training for our 23 year old gardener Maycol Hernandez. Maycol is studying medicinal plants by day at Hidden Garden and going to high school at night, where he is learning the Bri Bri language of his Indigenous ancestors. Maycol has joined our Bri Bri Plant Guide Project as a researcher. His grandfather and other family members support his studies by sharing their ancestral knowledge with him, knowing that he will share it into our free online database. His interest in pursuing a career in traditional agriculture and ethnobotany is unusual in his neighborhood and in the nearby Indigenous reserve.
- Scholarship funds to cover local residents' participation in cultural conservation activities. Hidden Garden's educational program is one of few organizations which aim to introduce the traditional medicine of Latin America into mainstream Alternative Medicine and into academia. Of equal importance is supporting the survival of these traditions within Latin America, which is why we offer free classes, partial scholarships and work-exchange options to those of Latino or Afro-Caribbean ancestry.
- Protecting endangered medicinal plants, conserving stories about them and advocating for their ancestral stewards. Hidden Garden’s Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary includes a local plants nursery, which helps to bring the medicinal plants back into the local home and community gardens.
- Sharing local knowledge back to local people. Research, documentation and dissemination of ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal information relevant to Hidden Garden’s botanical collection, Caribbean, Bri Bri and/or Costa Rican flora.
-Advocating for the re-valuing of Traditional Latino Medicine through academic presentations and Professional Development opportunities. Hidden Garden's courses give local teachers a chance to share their knowledge and benefit financially. They give students from all over the world, an opportunity to experience, and therefore come to appreciate, the ethnomedicine of Latin America. This learning environment is also conducive to the sharing of information among interdisciplinary experts and the creation of original theories and research.
Thank you so much for taking an interest in our cultural conservation project. Please feel free to learn more about The Caribbean Ethnobotanical Sanctuary, research this topic in our online library , or explore a visit to our center .
Organizer
Rachel Thomas
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
