Develop Leaders in At-Risk Communities, Costa Rica

It has now been nearly two decades since El Nino y la Bola/Boy With a Ball Costa Rica began its work in the El Triangulo squatter's settlement or "precario." It has been five years since El Triangulo was flattened to make room for a highway after the residents there had grown so much, in part due to Love Your City, that many had risen out of the neighborhood, out of poverty to find homes of their home.  

With El Triangulo gone, the organization turned their whole attention to the larger Los Cuadros precario with more than 10,000 residents and a tough reputation.  Boy With a Ball team members flow each week into the community on Saturdays to conduct Love Your City neighborhood walkthroughs in which dozens of volunteers and team members go door to door to build relationships with each community member.  These conversations become friendships which leverage an approach called Appreciative Inquiry to learn what each family is facing and the challenges and strengths young people are experiencing as they pursue graduating from high school on the way to reaching their dreams.  Within Los Cuadros,  this work has produced close to a dozen different programs including ESL classes, a tutoring center, a leaders group and more.  

Each group leads to growth and together - the team, the volunteers and the community members - are growing together, helping one another to rise out of poverty and to grow healthy lives, healthy families and healthy futures.

Thank you so much for your part in all of this.  This effort involves those who will go out into the Los Cuadros community teaming with those, like yourself, who will give to make this work possible.  As a result, everyone grows.  We look forward to seeing Love Your City scale deeper and deeper across Los Cuadros and then to other neighborhoods across San Jose.  Together, we can help thousands of young people go beyond the corrugated tin walls of their shanties to become leaders who turn and help others rise as well. 

Links:

• The Slum That Rose Out of Poverty
• Love Your City: The Boy With a Ball Story

She is a single mother of two children. She would like to finish high school, having tried seven times but been unable to do so because she doesn't have anyone to help her with the children. Her mother also works and can't stay home taking care of her grandchildren.
Sharon wants to be a seamstress because she really enjoys it. She would like to have her own business and be able to help others, as God has done for her, because amidst all her circumstances, God has never abandoned her.
She would also like to go to university and study Social Work or Psychology, because she would like to help people. She wants to take advantage of every course she can to achieve her profession. Sharon's mother waited 10 years to get her own house and says it was a very difficult process. But they always trusted in God's will. Sharon told her mother that what God had given her and was hers, no one could take away. Sharon told us that she has been through very difficult times in life, but nevertheless, she has always seen the power of God beside her. She thanks Him for all the opportunities He has given her and continues to give her every day, because she knows she will achieve great things because God will help her at all times. Sharon is a very strong woman, and God has great things planned for her. God always knows the desires of our hearts, and even though it may seem like we are alone in the battle, He is always there by our side, even if we don't see Him.
We thank God for allowing us to form this friendship with Sharon. We know that very good things will come from this. We hope to be of great support and help to Sharon. God didn't bring us there by chance. We will keep Sharon and her family in our prayers, because if we have learned anything during all this time, it is the power of prayer and that God always hears us at all times. Sharon has a very positive attitude and thanks God for everything he has given her so far, she hopes to become a professional, have a lot of money so she can bless other people, she would like to help foundations and families in need. Her heart has very big and beautiful desires to be able to help other people, everything she is putting in God's hands and asks for in her prayers, God will give it to her at some point, because he knows when, how and where to give us the things we ask for, sometimes we despair because the things we ask of God do not arrive anymore, but he always listens to us and is by our side at all times, no matter how many times we move away, God never stops loving us.

Links:

• Pagina Web
• IG
• Web Global