The Hero Academy is based in Tamarindo, Costa Rica and has been transforming lives of young boys and girls for the last year…


Our mission is to create a generation of boys and girls who will not be defined by their current socio-economic situation..

Boys and girls who will not fall into the trap of drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and violent crime.

Kids who will become leaders and role models and inspire their community to break free from the perpetual cycle of poverty and crime.

A few stories from Hero Academy…

Time To Break The Cycle

When we first started teaching at Hero Academy…

Our first influx of students was a group of young girls around the ages of 7-11 years old…

All of of their moms wanted them to learn Brazilian jiu jitsu for self defense…

Brazilian jiu jitsu at times requires physical corrections to move a hand, or leg to a different place…

So when Coach Rome would make a physical corrections he noticed something interesting about the girls…

They all flinched or were very scared to be physically touched…

Later we found out that a lot of the girls were sexually assaulted by family and/or community members…

We didn’t change our approach in teaching them but we just decided to give them even more love and compassion…

After about a month one of the girls ran up to Coach Rome and gave him a big bear hug… Then another… Then Another… After a little while they were all hugging Coach Rome and Coach Jerad…

Its amazing and beautiful the trust and confidence that can be taught through Martial Arts.

Its pretty much impossible to tell how much a child’s life will change in ALL THE AREAS by gaining these important qualities of self confidence and feeling loved.

The sky is NOT the limit!



All She Needed Was Love and Compassion...

A few months ago we had a 7 year old girl come in and she refused to speak to anyone…

We actually thought she was mute or had some sort of learning disability…

But her mom said she was just a “Problem child” and she doesn’t know what to do with her…

But after a few days of her sitting around, watching the class and some words of encouragement she was on the mats playing, laughing, and speaking to everyone…

All she needed was patience, love, and a positive male role model to teach her self discipline in a gentle way…



The "Gangster" In Hiding

In December a teenager walked in with scars all over his face and arms that looked like knife wounds, wearing a yellow bandana and acting like a “gangster”…

He was sent to us by a local community organization that didn’t know how to deal with him because he was branded a “trouble maker” and didn’t abide by their rules…

Coach Rome and this young “gangster” butted heads many times as he would disrupt the class and pick on some of the kids…

After a few weeks of TOUGH LOVE… He started to improve…

Granted little by little or as we say poco a poco…

In May of 2017 he earned his uniform and became student of the day for the FIRST TIME in all the classes that he attended.

It was the FIRST TIME he was ever awarded anything besides a butt kicking from his parents, or verbal abuse from teachers and elders that didn’t believe in him…


This was the day he broke free and earned his Uniform! 




Like a Hermit Crab That Out-Grows It’s Shell…

We find ourselves in a similar situation…

For the last year we have been working day and night
to serve the families of our local community…

Focusing most of our work on orphans, kids at risk,
and single moms…

We believe that investing in the future of our world starts with investing in our children and instead of dreaming about it we decided to take action…

We opened an academy in the center of town that focuses on teaching these kids how to lead a successful and fruitful lives through the vehicle of Brazilian jiu jitsu and a healthy lifestyle…

In 9 short months we have grown to over 50 regular students… 

And we already have around 50+ kids on a waiting list looking toget off the streets and start training Martial Arts in our program…

Building Our Strength For Anything To Come.

Learning How To Meditate To Develop Inner Peace. 


For the last year 90% of the finances for the program have been  funded by our personal money including:

Uniforms/Belts
Rent
Administrative staff
English teacher
Organic Food + Water
Training Equipment and cleaning supplies
Utilities
and organizing events for the kids…


And with this many kids in the program we are running into some financial obstacles…

That is where our challenge begins…

We have run out of space in our academy to take on new kids and keep our current group of students training safely…

The urgency for expansion is because more than 1/4 of our kids come as referrals from a community center for anger and aggression problems due to difficult family situations…(Or lack there of…)


We have seen and experienced first hand how life changing our Brazilian jiu jitsu program has been for these kids to transcend their current life problems and give them confidence in school, outdoors, and even put smiles on their faces(that have been missing for years…)





Included in this expansion:

Buy or build/renovate/furnish a facility that will accommodate a larger enrollment of kids into the program (whose lives we will change.)

*Purchase needed training equipment and uniforms

*Buy Food for the kids to eat after training

*Create an after school program for a bigger impact

*Hire one (1) full-time assistant instructor

*Hire (1) Full Time Administrator

*Hire (1) Full Time English Instructor

*Buy (1) 12 passenger van for the students who are in need of transportation to and from Hero Academy, tournaments and field trips



WHAT THE DONOR RECEIVES:

(ALL donations are Tax Write-Offs as we are a registered 501(c)3 Non Profit)

All of our generous donors will receive a personal thank you letter from the Hero Academy.


Bronze Donor: $100 - $299

* Receives a signed thank you letter from Coach Rome Za
* Donor recognition on the Hero Academy website

Silver Donor: $300 - $999

* Receives a signed thank you letter from Coach Rome Za
* Donor recognition on the Hero Academy website
* Autographed Hero Academy photo


Gold Donor: $1,000 - $4,999

* Receives a signed thank you letter from Coach Rome Za
* Donor recognition on the Hero Academy website
* Autographed Hero Academy photo
* Hero Academy T-Shirt


Platinum Donor: $5,000 - $9,999

* Receives a signed thank you letter from Coach Rome Za
* Donor recognition on the Hero Academy website
* Autographed Hero Academy photo
* Hero Academy T-Shirt
* Personal coaching call from Coach Rome Za
* Hero Academy Baseball Cap
* Fly Down to Costa Rica For 1 Day Mastermind


Diamond Donor: $10,000 or above

* Receives a signed thank you letter from Coach Rome Za
* Donor recognition on the Hero Academy website
* Autographed Hero Academy photo
* Hero Academy T-Shirt
* Personal phone call from Coach Rome Za
* Hero Academy Baseball Cap
* Fly down for a 5 Day Awaken Retreat