Additional to what Costa Rican Trails is doing to protect our natural resources and support our rural communities, we are assuming the commitment to support several organizations that contribute to the protection of the environment as well as to the welfare of the Costa Rican people.

Environmental Organizations:

The Organization for Tropical Studies

The Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) is a non-profit consortium that has grown to include 63 universities and research institutions from the United States, Latin America and Australia. It was founded in 1963 to provide leadership in education, research and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. To address this mission, OTS conducts graduate and undergraduate education, facilitates research, participates in tropical forest conservation, maintains three biological stations in Costa Rica and conducts environmental education programs. 

For further information, please visit:  www.ots.ac.cr

Caribbean Conservation Corporation

For over 40 years, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation has conducted annual sea turtle nest monitoring studies on the 21 mile black sand beach of Tortuguero, Costa Rica, the nesting site of more endangered green turtles than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. Since 1950, this monitoring program has provided much information on the reproductive ecology and migratory habits of sea turtles. Not only does CCC carry out a variety of research initiatives in the region, it also offers people around the world the opportunity to join CCC in Tortuguero as a Sea Turtle Research Participant in its leatherback or green turtle monitoring project!

For further information please visit. www.cccturtle.org

Neotropica Foundation

The Neotropica Foundation is a non profitable organization who struggles to support rural communities since 1985. These activities are carried out around protected wild areas or biological zones and other similar areas. Their work is to make people conscious about the importance of these zones to the communities that are around them, so they will become guardians of the existing natural resources.

For further information please visit: www.neotropica.org
 

The National Park Foundation

The National Park Foundation's main objective is to provide economic resources for the consolidation, management and development of protected wild areas in Costa Rica. Since its early beginnings the Foundation has raised national and international funds in order to preserve these areas.

For further information, please visit:  http://www.fpn-cr.org/

Social Organizations:

Paniamor Foundation

Paniamor Foundation is a Costa Rican, non-for-profit, non partisan, private organization, of a preventive and technical nature. It was created in 1987, and declared of Public Interest by the Costa Rican Government, in 1990. Its main programs are: The Violence Prevention Program, which addresses personal violence against and amongst children and youth (family violence, school violence, community violence); The Incidence Program, which addresses the lack of due performance by public institutions responsible for the protection of children rights in the country; and also promotes the involvement of key social actors in the development of national strategies that seek to respond to more structural conditions affecting the rights of particularly vulnerable populations; The Social Development Program, which works mainly with adolescents ages 13 to 18, from socio-economic deprived communities, to address issues of poverty and exclusion (school failure, unemployment, gender discrimination, technology gap). It seeks to promote values, knowledge and skills that will empower their new generations to exercise their rights and responsibilities for their own personal growth, and that of their families, peers, and communities of origin.

Their projects are implemented through funding obtained from international organizations, private foundations and the private sector. They also receive funding from individual donors and different fundraising events. All their projects are subject to external auditing and that of our cooperating partners.

For further information please visit: http://www.paniamor.org/

World Vision

World Vision is a development organization of Christians that strives to promote the well-being of all, especially of children. In Costa Rica, World Vision has been working for almost 20 years in the Chorotega and Northern Huetar regions, promoting SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, hand in hand with the communities. They foster respect for the rights of children, adolescents and women through the program of Promotion of Justice, generate sources of employment and of agricultural funding in rural areas through the program of Economic Development, work in the area of emergency prevention and pre-positioning of a rapid response, in addition to offering rehabilitation to victims through the program of Prevention, Emergency and Rehabilitation and more, all these programs are aimed to build a better quality of life together with the communities.

For further information, please visit:  http://worldvision.cr/

Asociación Manos Amigas Llevando Esperanza  (AMALE)

Costa Rican Trails supports the AMALE Foundation which seeks to promote a space that provides the basic needs of a human being such as clean clothes, bed, food, access to showers, and the opportunity to change with dignity.

Any and William’s dormitory center hosts mostly men in condition of extreme poverty and in social exclusion who are not only living in marginal areas, but also living at the streets with drug addiction problems and without the basic needs. AMALE Foundation tries to give them a space in which they can find a place that provides them with motivation and dignity. This way, these people can change to positive actions such as reintegration into society, habit change and to have a decent job.

http://www.amale.org/

Fundación Pro Unidad de Cuidados Paliativos

This is a Costa Rican nonprofit organization aimed to provide palliative care the pain suffered by patients who, due to the characteristics of their illness, medicine cannot offer an alternative cure, it can offer the  palliative care to provide a better life quality. The foundation serves children and adolescents who suffer from a limited life condition and / or terminal phase; hence, through this program, they receive efficient, effective and appropriate care along with their families applying principles, basics and the philosophy of Palliative Care. For more than 7 years, Costa Rican Trails employees have done an internal campaign where they voluntarily donate a full day of their work. All donations collected are destined to this  foundation.

Casa Luz Foundation

Casa Luz is a home for young mothers and their children who come from situations of abuse, extreme poverty and exploitation. The program focuses on providing psychological and emotional support, school education, spiritual guidance and a comprehensive preschool program. Moreover, the program is adapted to the specific needs that each family has by making a strong emphasis on continuing education while they move towards total independence.

Costa Rican Trails shares the values of Casa Luz as the company also recognizes the importance of supporting Costa Rican children and adolescents, so every month, we help this foundation in order for the young mothers and their children to succeed.