The Foundation

Since 2010, Rebeca has worked in environmental education at the Elementary School of Palmichal with a group she began called Guardianes del Ambiente or “Guardians of the Environment.” In December 2020, Mauro had meetings with Rebeca to talk about the social and environmental problems that the community has, especially the lack of environmental education for young people and their families.

Mauro mentioned the possibility of applying for a grant of $10,000 to teach youth and their families in the communities of Palmichal, San Pablo, Tabarcia, Bustamante, and Morado. Rebeca shared the idea of building a greenhouse, and coordinating activities with youth, and she agreed to participate.

Mauro created the draft for the grant with the title “Protecting the Palmichal Watershed through Youth Experiential Education: Cultivating Peace and Environmental Prosperity in San José Rural”. Part of the objectives of the grant was to promote activities that contribute to the peace and empowerment of the community. This was achieved by educating future “agents of change”. With this first donation, we built a greenhouse, which functions as an open classroom. In addition, we have provided workshops and field trips locally and nationally to learn about other environmental projects.

Once the project was successfully completed, adult members economically supported activities. The attitude of the parents motivated Mauro and Rebeca to turn a small project into a foundation that can develop many more projects to benefit the environment. In order to carry out this initiative and establish a foundation, support has been obtained from various national and international institutions to implement activities, create the foundation, legalize it and propose a board of directors. Mauro and Rebeca decided to be co-founders and proposed Rocío, Julio, and Jorge be part of the team and the board of directors to establish the Foundation called Visionarios de Paz.