Local Activities
Acting locally...
Campanario has been helping our local schools for years. Just north of the Campanario Biological Station is the small one-room elementary school for the few children in the area of San Josecito. The school, with just one teacher, is located on the beach, has just a few materials, and was just connected to the national electrical grid sometime during 2015.
Another project, inland from Campanario by at least a two hour hike, is the community school of Los Planes. This is a slightly larger school with three classrooms and a pre-school program.
On the other side of the Osa Peninsula lies the reserve of the Ngäbe (Guaymi) Indians. The elementary school there has approximately 50 students in 2 small classrooms. There is also a small lunch room, which is also used as a classroom, and a preschool room. The Ngäbe community has no electricity and is a good 2-3 hour hike into the closest town.
Campanario and its visitors has supplied these three schools and others with much needed material: everything from maps to construction paper to chalk and notebooks. Our most significant contribution has been to create rural libraries in these three schools for the children and their communities. In addition, donations of many other books have gone to schools in the communities of Sierpe and Palmar Norte.
We're now targeting reference books, perhaps even a children's encyclopedia and novels for the older students for all three schools. Remember, in these fairly remote areas, we still use books, as computers and internet connections are scarce. All book donations are most welcome, complete with large zippered plastic bags to take the books home! Books should be in Spanish and appropriate for school children.
Additionally, students and teachers at Campanario periodically visit the schools to give talks about some area of interest, such as the benefits of bats, the protection of the beaches for turtle nesting, the need for recycling, and the continuing need for conservation of the forests. And, with your help, we will continue to add to the libraries.
Click here for a brief chronology of Campanario’s activities.
