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Por Una Pura Vida Drug Education Project Puntarenas, Costa Rica
This fundraising campaign is on behalf of Karla Dana and Fundación Por Un Mundo Libre de Drogas
Our mission is to deliver free drug education workshops across 40 secondary and primary schools in southern rural Costa Rica. The local Ministry of Education in the Puntarenas province has already endorsed our team and is preparing for our arrival. As part of this project, we will also host community engagement events, such as concerts performed by local artists. This is the second year we are spearheading this project.
In 2017 with your help, we were able to deliver our workshops to 1,000 students and families at 27 schools in the Puntarenas province and reached 900,000 people through TV and media interviews, and all in the course of 3 weeks. This province in Costa Rica borders Panama and lies directly in the middle of the drug path from Columbia up through to the USA. As such, it is a target zone for drug education. This year our project will run from July 24th to August 24th. In coordination with Fundación Por Un Mundo Libre de Drogas, we plan to deliver drug education workshops to over 2,000 students.
How we got started:
In 2015, Karla and two of her university peers did a field research project working with an indigenous community in the Puntarenas province called the Ngäbe. The Ngäbe are an indigenous people living in southern Costa Rica and Panama. They have worked hard to preserve their language and culture for the last several decades and in spite of challenges, they indeed stand out in their success in having done so with 99% of the people speaking the native language, and Ngäbe culture being taught in their schools. From her experience with the community, Karla not only learned about the challenges the Ngäbe community was facing in continuing their actions towards cultural preservation, but also the issues it was facing with drug abuse. She offered to transcribe a book of Ngäbe ancestral legends and culture to forward the aims of cultural preservation held by the community and its indigenous leaders, and additionally, she offered to deliver drug education seminars the following year to help the community combat its issues of drug abuse. Both of these offers were accepted with open arms, and in 2017 both of these projects were accomplished!
Our team printed and delivered 500 books containing ancestral legends and a compilation of hundreds of years of Ngäbe culture, and as mentioned, we conducted a successful drug education project across 27 schools in the area. Our work was such a success that the local Ministry of Education is welcoming us back with open arms to continue our work.
How You Can Help:
There are only 3 weeks left before we depart to Costa Rica to bring this project to fruition! All donations will go towards hosting community events and covering the costs of the project. Throughout our time in Costa Rica, we will stay with local families, and we will hire a local driver so that we can be efficient in covering as many schools as possible - maybe we can even surpass 40.
Thank you for your support! If you have any questions or would like to donate please feel free to contact us. We hope you are just as excited as us to make this project a reality and continue bringing drug education to dozens of schools. Pura Vida!
Our Team Members:
Karla Dana is the Executive Leader and Spanish speaker and is responsible for the coordination of the project and for seminar delivery.
Etiana Coley Mells is the Project Manager and is responsible for photography and videography.
Simon Smith-Foy is the Bodyguard and is responsible for ensuring the well-being and safety of the team.
Contact us for more information: [email redacted] & [email redacted].edu 
Instagram: porunapuravida
This fundraising campaign is on behalf of Karla Dana and Fundación Por Un Mundo Libre de Drogas
Our mission is to deliver free drug education workshops across 40 secondary and primary schools in southern rural Costa Rica. The local Ministry of Education in the Puntarenas province has already endorsed our team and is preparing for our arrival. As part of this project, we will also host community engagement events, such as concerts performed by local artists. This is the second year we are spearheading this project.
In 2017 with your help, we were able to deliver our workshops to 1,000 students and families at 27 schools in the Puntarenas province and reached 900,000 people through TV and media interviews, and all in the course of 3 weeks. This province in Costa Rica borders Panama and lies directly in the middle of the drug path from Columbia up through to the USA. As such, it is a target zone for drug education. This year our project will run from July 24th to August 24th. In coordination with Fundación Por Un Mundo Libre de Drogas, we plan to deliver drug education workshops to over 2,000 students.
How we got started:
In 2015, Karla and two of her university peers did a field research project working with an indigenous community in the Puntarenas province called the Ngäbe. The Ngäbe are an indigenous people living in southern Costa Rica and Panama. They have worked hard to preserve their language and culture for the last several decades and in spite of challenges, they indeed stand out in their success in having done so with 99% of the people speaking the native language, and Ngäbe culture being taught in their schools. From her experience with the community, Karla not only learned about the challenges the Ngäbe community was facing in continuing their actions towards cultural preservation, but also the issues it was facing with drug abuse. She offered to transcribe a book of Ngäbe ancestral legends and culture to forward the aims of cultural preservation held by the community and its indigenous leaders, and additionally, she offered to deliver drug education seminars the following year to help the community combat its issues of drug abuse. Both of these offers were accepted with open arms, and in 2017 both of these projects were accomplished!
Our team printed and delivered 500 books containing ancestral legends and a compilation of hundreds of years of Ngäbe culture, and as mentioned, we conducted a successful drug education project across 27 schools in the area. Our work was such a success that the local Ministry of Education is welcoming us back with open arms to continue our work.
How You Can Help:
There are only 3 weeks left before we depart to Costa Rica to bring this project to fruition! All donations will go towards hosting community events and covering the costs of the project. Throughout our time in Costa Rica, we will stay with local families, and we will hire a local driver so that we can be efficient in covering as many schools as possible - maybe we can even surpass 40.
Thank you for your support! If you have any questions or would like to donate please feel free to contact us. We hope you are just as excited as us to make this project a reality and continue bringing drug education to dozens of schools. Pura Vida!
Our Team Members:
Karla Dana is the Executive Leader and Spanish speaker and is responsible for the coordination of the project and for seminar delivery.
Etiana Coley Mells is the Project Manager and is responsible for photography and videography.
Simon Smith-Foy is the Bodyguard and is responsible for ensuring the well-being and safety of the team.
Contact us for more information: [email redacted] & [email redacted].edu 
Instagram: porunapuravida
