Asociación Cepia - Costa Rica

Gran First Final of the Cintas Racing Championship
On November 14th, 2010 in Huacas and in collaboration with the Association of Horse riders, took place the First Final of the Cintas Racing Championship: wooden horses competition for kids, equestrian contest, food and beverages and a fabulous dancing. With this event, CEPIA celebrated its fifth anniversary with the communities.
The money raised will be used for the purchase of a playground for the Huacas Nutrition Centre (CEN-CINAI).
CEPIA would like to extend a deep thank to companies and businesses: Restaurant El Pacifico, Restaurant Via Playa, Suplicadora Huacas, Tierra de Sol Souvenir Tamarindo,  Pañalera Tica Huacas, Panes, Computadora Yri, Blue Store,  Punto Tranquilo, Licoreria Fofi´s, Best Western Vista villas Tamarindo, Bijouteria la Bendicion, Veterinaria Karla Carvajal, Ciclo Yiree Huacas, Moto Suzuky, taller electromecánico CORZEL, Water Pump Solutions, Vidrios la Costa, Office Markers, Impresos Rojas, Netherland Toys, Reserva Conchal, Restaurante Voodoo Tamarindo, Beach Club Langosta, Beach Club Tamarindo, Flamingo Beach Resort, Fantastic World.
To Volunteers: Randhy Gonzales, Cristina Martin y Javier Abad, Jeanne Cordes, Ashley Javogue, Grettel Solorzano, Liliana Rodriguez, Familia Smith, Kris Goossens, Joyce Van Vooren, Muriel Cuny, Elodie Combeaud, Sue Kallis, Julian Chaves, Courtney Borquet, Isabelle Furet Pignon, Cathy Deweer, Petra Schwabe, Geraldine Carmona, Cinthya Lorena, Odixi, Jon Skaggs, Brianna del Castillo.
To the special Guests: Ashley y Emmanuel Javogue, Jose Maria Garrita  and also: Sigi Herzog y Trevor Bernard that helped the event.  
 
 
Day of No Violence against Women
On Thursday, November 25th, in Villarreal, CEPIA organized a march and artistic presentations, in collaboration with the schools of Huacas, Brasilito, Playa Grande, Matapalo, Villarreal, Villareal High School, EF Tamarindo School  for the second yea,r celebrating the International Day of No Violence Against women. For CEPIA it is a big challenge to rescue and release these activities that promote awareness and importance of respect for women and family. We faithfully believe that an informed and participating population is an educated population.
Thanks to, Cecilia Leiva, Grettel Solorzano, Smith Family, Bernard Agosta, Nils Chaves, Michele Dietrich, Javier Abad, Randhy Gonzales  for their time and to Tamarindo Shuttle, Paradisus playa Conchal, Emergencia 2000, Mauricio from Son del Barrio and each of the students, teachers and schools directors by sharing with us this feeling and make public people's voice.

Open Doors
On December 4th, CEPIA celebrated with the children who participated in the after school program during the year our dearest Open Doors event with games, presentations, lunch, dancing, where children’s creativity and happiness filled our center.
Thanks to Isabelle Furet Pignon, Muriel Cuny, Elodie Combeaud, Petra Schwabe, Grettel Solorzano, Carolina Ruiz, Randhy Gonzales , Javier Abad, Cristina Martin, Joyce Van Vooren, Kris Goossens, Mary Byerly , Debbie Marcos, Cecilia Leiva, Bernard Agosta, CEPIA teenagers,  Nicolas Huet, Cathy Deweer, and to restaurants Que Tuanis, Barcelo Langosta, La Boya, Marie´s,  Noguis, Pleamar for providing the lunch, as tasty as always and to everyone in general that on one way or another make our work  possible.

III International Fair
CEPIA thanks the EF language school in Tamarindo  for inviting our teenagers group from the project ¨training teenagers into  the future”, to share a day with students from other countries and know different cultures and food.

  
Last November 10th, the Local subsystem of children and adolescents protection of Santa Cruz, which CEPIA is an active member, coordinated a meeting of young people with applicants to the Municipal City Hall of Santa Cruz. The goals was to have a space for young people to share with the applicants their wishes and needs and thus create agreements to provide genuine participation of young people in the canton of Santa Cruz. Four teenagers from CEPIA participated in this Meeting.
The event was very positive, and recently was appointed and sworn by the Municipal Council of Santa Cruz ¨the Cantonal Committee of Children and Teenagers¨ looking to strengthen the real and active participation of children and teens in the canton of Santa Cruz.

Teenagers graduation - Project ¨ Training Teenagers into the Future¨
It is a great pleasure to inform you that the teenagers from our project ¨Training Teenagers into the Future¨ graduated with honors and with a desire to excel. A total of 30 teenagers who initially had nothing to do at home, found in CEPIA a place to learn and strength to continue fighting for their dreams. From 30 youngs who started with us, 16 of them return to high school, 6 of them are incorporating a technical career in the INA, 2 are staying with CEPIA and 2 participate in the open class program to get their sixth grade. We thank the teachers, the Florida Foundation for their support, Hotel Capitan Suizo and Nibbana restaurant for giving us lunch, Country Day School and Jungly Gym for using their facilities, The Smith family for bringing the lunch almost every day, and the volunteers, Muriel Cuny, Jon Skaggs, Pedro Martinez, Javier Abad, Grettel Solorzano, Sue Kallis, Ashley Javogue, Maureen Thompson, Jean Capezza, for their time and many others who in one way or another where involved with the young generation.

Newsletter July - August 2010
  

LIBRARY, GREAT TREASURE
CEPIA is pleased to announce that on July 5th our beloved public library was inaugurated with great pride, for all the communities. Children, youth and adults have now the opportunity to visit our facilities and borrow books to read at home. Our main goal  is to make the new library a magical place of sharing books, acquire behavioral habits that should be shown in a library, awake, cultivate and strengthen the love of reading.

The library schedule is every Saturday from 2:00 pm to 5 pm.


DRAMA
On July 21st, 100 children from the CEN till 2nd grade of Villarreal, enjoyed ¨Joaquín and Violet¨, two stories of Theatre animation, dealing with topics about self-esteem and generosity respectively. The show was sponsored by the Cultural Center of Spain and presented by Símbolo.Cía.Escénica.

On August 10th, CONACOES, which CEPIA is an active part of, presented in Cartagena and Villarreal a theater show dealing with the issue of commercial sexual exploitation. A total of more than 1,000 teenagers attended the performance.

PARENTS’ WORKSHOP ABOUT SEXUALITY
In July, Eileen Twohy, a CEPIA temporary volunteer and advanced student in psychology in the United States, carried out a workshop on "How to speak about sexuality with your children."  She showed parents the importance of talking with their children about sexuality and how to do it. Parents participated, offering their ideas, concerns and experiences.  Eileen presented the workshop at the Potrero (25 parents), Villarreal (25 parents), and Huacas (45 parents) schools.
 

SECOND SEMESTER of extracurricular classes
Dear friends, the second half of the year started but with very few classes, unfortunately due to lack of volunteers. We want to extend a call to all those people who are interested in volunteering and develop group activities in the schools, please contact us.
Thank you to  Mary Byerly and  Debbie Marcos, Carolina Ruiz, Ashley Javogue, Grettel Solorzano, Sebastian Tonelli, Geetanjali, Cecilia Leiva. People like you make a difference, sharing with children their smiles, their games, songs, this HAS NO PRICE!!
 

SANTA ROSA MOVIE NIGHT
On July 23rd, at the Santa Rosa Salon Communal, took place the second movie night of this year. 55 children and parents took part in the event. Thanks to Emily Fritz and Eileen Twohy, CEPIA volunteers, for organizing this beautiful activity, it was a success. We also thank the Development Committee of Santa Rosa for their unconditional support to CEPIA.


MARITZ TRAVEL’ SOCIAL RESPONSABILITY
With a lot of expectations, a group of 20 children were invited to a special activity at the Four Seasons hotel on the 8th of August. This event was organized by Maritz Travel, American enterprise and its 120 partners, motivated by CEPIA’s work, organized a donation of bookshelves, books and food package. CEPIA had to distribute all the items to schools and families in need. We thank these people for believing in our project.
We also extend our thanks to Tamarindo Shuttle for the children’s transportation, Development Catalinas and Bahia del Sol for the loan of transport to deliver the donated material.
We also thank Susana Pryer, Taylor and Glen Smith, Muriel Cuny, Elise Garnier, Benoit y Leatitia Deweer for joining us that day.

CEPIA’S GENERAL ASSEMBLY
The general assembly took place on Wednesda, August 18th 2010. We strongly believe that the union is strength and that only working together we can make a difference.Congratulations to Courtney Borquet for joining the Board of Directors!


THE YOUTH PROGRAM
The program "Training teenagers into the future" is still running and stronger in this second semester. Besides their basic classes, these youth are developing important tasks that contribute to the community as they are doing voluntary work in the Huacas Nutrition Centre, where they make a garden for the children of this place. They also received workshops about addictions, sexuality, nutrition, among others. And, last August 24th, driven by Tamarindo Shuttle, they were invited by Babe and Don Hopkins at their Pollito Muerto  Farm, where our teenagers  enjoyed  canopy, horseback riding, etc…..  We thank Fundacion Florida for the strategic alliance in the program.


DRAWING AND PAINTING WORKSHOP
From July 12th till 18th 2010, CEPIA provided a painting and drawing workshop, in collaboration with the Regional Cultural Office of Guanacaste, the House of the Artist and the Costa Rican Art Museum, for the children of the community.
With much enthusiasm these young artists developed their abilities in the art of painting. Thanks to those who attended the event.

Case Study: The impact of Multinational Corporations and Non-Governmental Organisations Empowerment Programs on power relations. This scientific research about CEPIA was realized in 2009 by Monica Medina, Master of Science in Developement Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland. Her conclusions: " The study shows that MNCs and NGOs have an enormous impact on local people’s lives. CEPIA participants’ relationships at home, at work, and within the community changed. Participants communicate more effectively. Effective communication helped participants increase their influence at home when determining the labour division... Read the full study

New director at CEPIA!
CEPIA is pleased to announce you that since the month of August 2009 Mrs. Sandrine Tcherniack is CEPIA's new director. We welcome her!

Ana Francis (psychologist), Sandrine (director) and Max (office manager)