Issue #31: Founding an NGO in Costa Rica by Jules Evans
Bridging Gaps Between 'Two Costa Ricas' Through CEPIA and Transformational Leadership
One of the questions we often ask ourselves in the valley is what is the impact to the surrounding communities of us coming here? We talked about gentrification before here and here. But we have ways to go in terms of tangible action to make meaningful change. Below is an inspiring story of an ex-pat who came to Guanacaste 21 years ago and is now running a successful non-profit helping locals in so many ways. Something that I would love to see happen here at some point as well.
Jules Evans and Laetitia Deweer interview
Laetitia Deweer came to Costa Rica as a 23-year-old Belgian in 2003, and two years later set up an NGO, CEPIA, to support lower-income children in Guanacaste. 21 years later, it has grown into one of the leading NGOs in Costa Rica and now runs multiple classes, provides a free daycare centre, and offers free psychological counselling for adults. Laetitia even managed to find time to train as a transpersonal breathwork facilitator! Here she shares her thinking on how to get things done here, and the importance of building a bridge between ‘the two Costa Ricas’.
Jules Evans - Hi Laetitia, so to begin at the beginning - you moved to Costa Rica with your parents in 2003, when you were 23?
Laetitia Deweer
Yes we moved to the area of Flamingo, in the north of Guanacaste. My parents opened a seven-bedroom boutique hotel. I quickly understood that that was not my vocation. I worked Monday to Friday at the hotel, and on Saturdays, I would take the public bus from Flamingo to Santa Cruz, where I would work at an orphanage. I started to observe the real difference in lives and opportunities.
Jules Evans - Did you feel a bit annoyed by the wealthy tourists at your parents’ hotel?
Laetitia Deweer
I do think that economic development is very important for Costa Rica and it creates jobs. And a lot of Costa Ricans are very happy working in the tourism industry. But still, I could see that the local children were only going to school three hours a day, there were no computer lessons, no art, no sports, so the kids were not really being stimulated enough to develop to their full potential.
Jules Evans - Do you think that that inequality has grown? And is there enough of a bridge between ‘the two Costa Ricas’?
Laetitia Deweer
Yes it has, and no, there is not. There are two kinds of foreigners or immigrants who come here. The ones that come here on holiday – and hotels have not really figured out how to support the local community. And then you have the wealthier immigrants who settle down here, perhaps for half of the year. And they definitely live in a bubble, most of them are just not very conscious what’s going on and they don’t know how to help. The main challenge is the language. And I think non-profit organisations can fill that gap. We depend on donations from these wealthy people.
I also feel the government has not been able to tap into the potential of the wealthy people here. A lot of the tax money goes to the central government and is not distributed equally, it stays in the Central Valley.
Jules Evans - So tell me about CEPIA, when did you set it up?
Laetitia
I set it up in 2005, two years after arriving. There was no non-profit in the Santa Cruz canton at that time. I was going to social events and meeting a lot of wealthy people. And one day I said ‘OK we’re going to create a little organization for the local kids’. And this wealthy man said ‘what do you need?’ I said ’10 laptops’, and he said ‘OK I’m going to donate them’. It suddenly seemed very easy to do. So then, with some friends, we decided to establish a formal non-profit. It took us two months to do.
Jules - What was the idea for CEPIA?
Laetitia
The original idea was to create educational opportunities for kids. We had a library, 10 laptops, computer classes, English classes, arts All in a little three-room house we rented in Huacas.
Jules - How did you find the children?
Laetitia
We would go into the village, and when the kids left school we gave them fliers saying ‘come to art class’ or something. We selected six schools and in 2006 organised a little van that could fit 12 people. We would bring kids to CEPIA, do a computer class, then bring them back. We’d do that all week with the van. It was quite organic – people would volunteer to teach volleyball, or whatever.
Jules - What worked well and what didn't in those early years.
Laetitia
The difficulty was, we had too many children showing up, we were quite overwhelmed. And then people – especially women, single moms – would come and share the difficult stories about having no food, no birth control, domestic violence. There were layers of issues showing up. We eventually hired a psychologist.
Jules - Was that strange for the Ticas - the idea of psychology and therapy?
Laetitia
Perhaps at first, but by now, our psychology program is quite established, and it has changed the culture of mental health here. In the beginning, the psychology clients would be 95% women and 5% men. So we did campaigns on social media, posters of a guy sitting on a rock, and the slogan ‘We men need to be listened to as well’, things like that. And right now, 25% of the people who come to the Psychology program are men. So you can shift things in the culture.
Jules - I've met people here who might have mental health problems, but hardly any who would go to a therapist or take anti-depressants.
Laetitia
No, it's not in the culture, it's still a little bit of taboo, but at the same time, things are changing for sure, especially when these services are available, because it's also about access.
Jules - What are the significant moments in the development of CEPIA?
Laetitia
Well, I think one on one side, more donors, for sure, because when you have money, you can hire more people and do more things. We got through the 2008 financial crisis, although we had to sell the van, fire the psychologist and computer teacher. The donors disappeared.
Then the big milestone, besides getting more donors, was that we got governmental funding. It started in 2009 the first governmental institution started donating maybe $15,000 a year. Now it's about $30,000. And then another milestone was when we built our own community center. At some point, after nine years in a very tiny house, we found a Canadian angel and they said to me, ‘Look, if you find the land. I'll give you $100,000 to build’. So we met with the community leaders of Huacas, and they had land available. That was a beautiful moment in my life - meeting with 300 members of the local community. And I did my little presentation with a projector in the big community salon, and the community was excited. They had known me for years. I invited one of their board members to be on our board. Every village in Costa Rica has, a local village association - some are working well, some are not. They take care of infrastructure, mostly, or the community salon, things like, and the big party every year, you know.
And so I said ‘I want one f your people on our board’. There was only one young guy, who came to our meetings with a computer, he was like 23. And I said ‘that’s the one I want’. And at night, the community voted to donate the land to CEPIA. That was a really special moment. And at that moment, this young guy, Caesar, came on, on the board with us, which was probably one of the best things that happened for us, and he worked for us for 13 years, and now I just hired him again. We're super good friends.
But we needed $400,000 to build this huge building. We knew what we needed – we had consulted the community and co-created the idea. And you know, if you want to get things done here, you need to know people in the government. You need Tico friends. So I had good friends in San Jose, and I was invited to a dinner. And I met a journalist who was best friends with the Minister of Welfare. I managed to meet with the Minister and explained the project of the community centre. And he said ‘I love this idea, and can sign a cheque for $100,000 The Canadian guy matched it, that was the idea. And so we started building with $200,000 and then with crowdfunding campaigns and all kinds of crazy fund-raising over two years, we ended up with this magnificent building. It's a first-world building, and it's beautiful, and it's a great space for people to feel safe and do classes.
Jules - How did the construction process go?
Laetitia We chose a local builder that I knew at the time. And Caesar, he supervised the whole process. We were there every day. If you're there at your construction every day, everything happens.
Jules - Tell me about your donors.
Laetitia
We probably have about 100 donors, who might donate from $100 to $50,000. It’s mainly Americans and Canadians, there doesn’t seem to be such a culture of philanthropy in Europe or in Costa Rica. Perhaps it’s more expected that the government will take care of things.
Jules - So what was the next big milestone for CEPIA?
Laetitia
So after the building, the biggest milestone is we started a very important program called the children's daycare for integral attention. So it means that we suddenly had the space to receive children from two years old, it started from two to six that lived in vulnerable situations. President chinchilla said we need to have daycares in our country. Women can't work if they don't have daycare, because it's nonexistent at that time. And so that big, big project started, and we got funding to have a public daycare centre. it started with 30 kids, and now we have 115 between the age of two and 17, because we also have teenagers who dropped out of school, and all kinds of difficult situations. So right now we receive almost $400,000 from the government every year.
Jules - What has been the hardest thing about running CEPIA?
Laetitia
I think finding the donors that want to continue. You can receive funding for a project, but then when you finish, there’s a gap of 3-4 months applying for the next one. What do you do with your staff in the meantime. Another challenge is the payrolls for nonprofits are really low, so people might prefer to work in tourism. Funding is really the main issue.
Jules - And just finally – you’re also trained as a transpersonal psychologist?
Laetitia
Yes, my thesis in university was the interpretation of children's drawings, especially children with attachment disorder. I was always very interested in psychology. It was actually my passion. But I couldn't go into the psychology in Belgium because I always failed statistics. I don't like math. Statistics was my nightmare. But my dream was, I wanted to be a psychologist. And in the orphanage and the shelter, what I would do was actually somehow therapeutic. Then in Costa Rica, I started going to the university again about 10 years ago, and I got my degree as a clinical psychologist. I did couples therapy, and just kept studying. My thesis was about transpersonal psychology. I'm a transformational breathwork practitioner, and so breathwork is my main tool as a transpersonal psychologist.
Laetitia Deweer worked as the executive director for 12 years, then as vice-president for 4 years and today she serves as the development director. Laetitia was born in Belgium in 1979 and as a university student, she participated in social projects in Guatemala and Mexico. At age 23 she moved to Costa Rica and worked in a family business on the pacific coast for one year before getting deeply involved as a volunteer with PANI (government child protection agency in Costa Rica). She founded CEPIA in 2005, together with her lifelong friend Lotje De Ridder, who now lives in Belgium.
https://cepiacostarica.org/
Jules Evans is Director of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project and the editor of the Substack Ecstatic Integration. www.challengingpsychedelicexperiences.com
www.ecstaticintegration.org
And speaking of helping local communities. We are in the last 2 weeks of the fundraiser for the Libertad school. We’ve raised $1,600 so far, thank you to all who gave! We still have ways to go, if you’re in a position to help, please consider giving.
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