A district of great hopes

The route of refugees from the poorest countries of Central America to the USA leads through the vast expanse of Mexico. Less often do we hear about them also heading in the opposite direction. Mass emigration from Nicaragua to Costa Rica began in the 1980s. Recently, after more than three decades, another, even more intense wave has come. The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, who has long forgotten his leftist ideals, the growing disparity between the rich few and the poor in general led to the biggest protests in 2018 since the Sandinistas overthrew Anastasio Somoza. Several hundred people have died in massacres organised by the uniformed services, and prisoners are being tortured. A new wave of refugees is pouring into Costa Rica, which already has one of the highest foreigner admission rates in all of Latin America.

The La Carpio slums in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, are dominated by Nicaraguans (over 50 percent, but also Colombians, Venezuelans, Chinese and others live here). The SIFAIS foundation has been operating there for a decade now. SIFAIS is the abbreviation of the name: Comprehensive Artistic Training System for Social Integration. The ambition of the founders of the foundation is to make three hours of community work a week become the norm for every Costa Rican. They are counting on a domino effect that will entail further social changes.

Maris Stella Fernández, an entrepreneur and resident of the “rich” San José, and Alicia Avilés, a Nicaraguan from the fallen La Carpio, started their activities in a shack in the worst part of the slum called the Toad’s Cave. Today, thanks to people’s generosity and the imagination of the founders, classes are held in the tallest wooden building in Central America. This architectural masterpiece features an environmentally-friendly ventilation system and the optimal use of the sun. This is one of the reasons why it’s been named the Cave of Light. But mainly to free the new headquarters from the associations with the previous place.

I always thought that Nicaraguans fled only to the States. Who decides to travel in the opposite direction?

ALICIA: Almost all of my family, my mother, my five brothers, and most Nicaraguan immigrants live in the USA. But I thought: you eat beans in Nicaragua and in Costa Rica too. We speak Spanish in both places. We have the same habits, plants and animals. It’s easier to feel at home in Costa Rica. In Nicaragua, I worked as a teacher, but in a dictatorship that deprives people of dignity at every step, it was no longer possible to live like this. I was persecuted for the strikes I took part in. I couldn’t feel safe. And Costa Rica welcomed me with open arms.

When did you leave Nicaragua?

ALICIA: I left on foot. It was 1996. I was marching in a group of women. We crossed the San Juan River in a rented boat. A total of 15 days of walking. We walked at night and hid in houses along the way during the daytime. People were happy to host us, especially the Nicaraguan immigrants who already lived in Costa Rica. They let us wash ourselves, they fed us, gave us clothes. I was 26 years old and I left five children in Nicaragua in the care of my sister-in-law. After a year, they came to me with my husband, legally. I lived in the neighbourhood of La Carpio, Costa Rica’s most dangerous slum, and immediately started looking for a job as a housekeeper.

How is the situation for refugees changing during the pandemic?

ALICIA: There are more Nicaraguan students in the district. This proves that emigration is not weakening. Newcomers arrive daily, usually around midnight. They go without masks because in Nicaragua the restrictions are not respected as in Costa Rica, and also due to lack of money. Some people come here already infected and sick. Sometimes they manage to cross the border, and they die in Costa Rica. Fortunately, our district gets help from the state: masks, disinfectants, food products. In addition, newcomers must be provided with shelter and work because most come with a group of children to be fed.

What is the situation in Costa Rica?

MARIS: We have democracy in Costa Rica, there are non-governmental organisations, there is a free and generally accessible education system. We have never had such horrors as our neighbours have. Costa Rica has almost never experienced dictatorship, and even the 19th-century coup of Tomás Guardia deserved praise for abolishing the death penalty and torture, and guaranteeing free education for children of both sexes. It has been like that from the beginning: even the conquistadors were not interested in this region because they did not find natural resources, people to work and conditions for development here.

But I must also admit that I lived in a bubble, I thought that this is what my whole country looks like. I was not aware of the marginalisation in which the inhabitants of La Carpio, for example, live.

What do Costa Rican people think about immigrants?

MARIS: The level of xenophobia continues to decline. A work permit for asylum seekers has recently been introduced in Costa Rica. This is one example of how our country is open to immigrants.

ALICIA: Of course, there are cases of intolerance, but no matter which party forms a government, you really feel the favour that this country and nation has for immigrants. Certainly, we can feel better among Costa Rican people than our compatriots can among Americans in the United States.

Apparently, your acquaintance started with football?

MARIS: I was visiting friends in a Catholic centre where women live. There is always an oratory in such places. And I am a very religious person and I like to pray every day. I came over there and met Alicia, who was looking after one of the elderly residents. We talked about life, politics, and also about football. And one day she told me that her kids would like to play on the football team, but they can’t because they don’t have clothes or shoes. All I knew about La Carpio was that it was a poor and dangerous district. I have a company that deals with PR and communication. My husband is also an entrepreneur. We talked and bought the outfits. The boys started to play, had good results, we could have left it there – the task was done. “No, no, no,” Alicia said then.

How so?

MARIS: She came and said she had another request: that I help her organise an orchestra. After all, not all children like to play football. It is necessary to activate others, to get them off the street, and to distract them from everyday worries and a future of crime. An orchestra? I thought this was crazy. Years later, Alicia told me how it happened: she prayed in the oratory, asking God to tell her who she could ask for help. Then I rang the bell. That’s why she dared to ask me. Five days later, Johnny Armenta, an immigrant from Venezuela and a flute teacher, showed up and said he would like to thank Costa Rica for the hospitality. I told him about the idea. “Vamos!” – he was full of enthusiasm. I bought 20 plastic flutes and 20 pairs of sticks, although we didn’t have any drums yet, but you could play anything with them. I brought my guitar, and then we borrowed guitars from my sisters. A movement of donating used instruments began: we were given violins, cellos, transverse flutes, saxophones. When I arrived for my first rehearsal, there was no one there. I was worried. After 10 minutes, 50 children showed up. And this is how the idea for the SIFAIS foundation was born. Thanks to the help of donors and volunteers, it was possible to develop it. A symphony and chamber orchestra, a jazz and rock band, a dance and flamenco school, a free Montessori kindergarten with meals for several dozen children were established, and sewing and toy making workshops were launched. Before the pandemic, 950 people a week participated in music, dance, IT, language, chess and painting classes. All led by volunteers, we had as many as 200 of them before the pandemic. And since February, there are more students after the break, 600 of them study here every week. It all worked out thanks to the four pillars we discovered.

What are these pillars?

MARIS: Trust, persistence, madness, and tenderness. I didn’t think an orchestra would work out in a place like this and I was wrong. I said it couldn’t be done, but Alicia insisted. That’s why you need trust. Perseverance – because it is said that the worst people in the world live in La Carpio, and it takes a lot of effort to convince others that it is worth addressing the problems of this district. It is also about the persistence of the inhabitants of the district. We also need a little bit of madness to come up with all these ideas. Everyone can allow themselves a little bit of madness here. This one wants to train Judo, that one has an idea of creating a jazz band.

And tenderness, because we all need it: to be happy with others when they are happy and to be sad when they worry. It all really works together. When we announced that the only football pitch in the district was badly damaged, we were immediately flooded with offers to help.

ALICIA: It is more than just offering opportunities to a poor community: it is a peaceful rebellion against exclusion.

Did the authorities support your activities from the very beginning?

MARIS: Alicia wanted to send a letter to the welfare ministry about the orchestra. But I was sure that the matter would get stuck in bureaucracy. We took care of it on our own. But then, when the idea for the Cave of Light came up, we applied for the site and a loan. Probably for the first time in the history of Costa Rica, the state agreed to support such a risky initiative and we were given this land for 15 years with a possibility of extension. Several years have passed and SIFAIS offers cooperation to many state institutions.

They say La Carpio is the worst place in all of Costa Rica.

MARIS: Nobody wants or dares to come here, the epicentre of crime, there is no worse place to live. The name La Carpio was synonymous with poverty and banditry. But this image is changing. So many articles and so many programmes about La Carpio have been created that the perception of the district has improved. Perhaps now other places are perceived as worse, there will always be prejudices. But La Carpio has become a district of great hopes.

Why does the foundation support women in a special way?

ALICIA: First of all, because we are struggling with a huge number of single mothers. They have to take care of their income, children and homes at the same time. There are those with only a few square meters apiece. There are no conditions for education. For play. For any development. With the earnings people have in this district, it is difficult to find a decent flat. If someone is a single mother, there is no chance of anything. State aid for such people is small, around $100, and only lasts three months.

Does the foundation offer specific help to women depending on their age?

MARIS: Younger women learn self-defence or professional skills. Older ones learn to read and write, participate in various activities.

ALICIA: Elders are the next most abandoned group, after single mothers. But here we have limited possibilities because in this case you need food, often specific, e.g., for diabetics.

How do you activate women professionally?

ALICIA: Mainly through workshops. Women come and do sewing, design, creating cases or 3D printer operation classes.

MARIS: After training, we want them to be independent entrepreneurs, to successfully provide services or become craftsmen. That is why we opened the Sifais Creators Academy, the Sifaissori Educational Toy Academy, the Textile Production Academy and the ACTIM zone for the development of art, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, in which mainly women participate. Additionally, thanks to the support of the Kulczyk Foundation, the production of reusable sanitary pads and nappies is about to start.

How do your initiatives turn into production activities?

ALICIA: It was volunteers who suggested that sports and cultural activities should be enriched with various workshops, which over time turned into production. Now, for example, we are going to start a bakery.

MARIS: We are looking for products that would have a chance to enter the market. At the moment we have several social enterprises: they produce handbags, cases and textile products, educational toys, masks and visors. We spend the income on the purchase of raw materials, further training and the daily activities of the foundation.

What is the role of volunteering?

ALICIA: Huge. After three months, we already had several hundred participants of courses, workshops and classes. And we wanted to provide access to all those willing. If 30 children wanted to learn guitar, we admitted all of them. It is thanks to the volunteers that we were able to start this amazing machine that does not exclude anyone, without dividing into women and men, older and younger. The oldest participant of the classes is 72 years old. She wanted to start learning to play the violin at that age!

MARIS: A bond was formed between the volunteers and the locals, and this was a key element in strengthening the La Carpio community, which is still trying to create its own identity. In addition, this integration began to create a multicultural environment in which people of different nationalities united. Furthermore, our initiatives stimulate other institutions to act. For example, the immigration office has started helping people with an irregular situation here. And the ministry of education has launched Educación Abierta (Open Teaching), a public formal education programme that enables school dropouts to return to the system and obtain a high school diploma. The ministry pays for the teachers’ work, SIFAIS covers the costs of exams, thanks to which education for the district’s residents has become completely free.

Who are the volunteers?

ALICIA: They are engineers, professionals in their fields and students, women and men, young and old, even retirees, Costa Ricans, Latinos and gringos. After all, not all gringos, as it is sometimes believed here, are bad. They come, work for free, provide us with knowledge and skills.

MARIS: The Foundation has Christian roots, after all, it was born in an oratory, but we are open to everyone regardless of their beliefs, social origin or nationality. Everyone is welcome. This recipe has really worked.

 

Author: Mirosław Wlekły 

Photo: Tatiana Jachyra

The text was published in „Wolna Sobota” a magazine of „Gazeta Wyborcza” on 1 May 2021 

 

 

 

 

The Kulczyk Foundation supports the Costa Rican Sifais Foundation which works for children, youth and women, leading to a positive change in the community living in the La Carpio slums in the Costa Rican capital, San José. Sifais’ beneficiaries are mainly migrants and refugees from Nicaragua. The Kulczyk Foundation has co-financed a project aimed to train a team of 15 women and support them in the production and sale of environmentally-friendly sanitary pads and reusable nappies. The project also supports 200 women most affected by period poverty in the local community.