Subway Costa Rica and the non-profit housing initiative, TECHO, have joined to aid children living in extreme poverty in Guararí de Heredia.

Subway Costa Rica teamed up with TECHO on an initiative called: “Para vos, para alguien más, y los que más lo necesitan,” “For you, for someone else, and those who need it most.”

The company will donate US$20,000 to TECHO for the construction of a new multipurpose hall where the children will be able to have lunch and receive their Saturday afternoon tutorials

Subway will also donate food to the program for one year.

“We wanted to have a positive impact on a community that really needed it; that is why we established contact with TECHO, an organization that in our country has shown it does things in a serious, responsible, and above all, tangible way,” said Gia Pandolfo, marketing manager of Subway Costa Rica.

TECHO Costa Rica, in addition to using donated funds to building housing for poor families throughout the country, also runs four after school programs for children aged 4 – 14 (PAE, their acronym in Spanish) to support children in succeeding at school and staying in school.

At least 120 children participate in the Guararí de Heredia program. Two after school programs are run in Batán de Limón, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, and one in Liberia, Guanacaste in the northern region.

The communities were chosen due to the extreme at-risk situation faced by families and children in these areas. TECHO found in a 2014 study that 62 percent of children in Guararí de Heredia suffer from moderate malnutrition, said María José Hernández Martínez, CEO of TECHO Costa Rica.

TECHO has designed the PAE programs to last approximately three years in each community, and the effort is carried out by volunteers.

“We are aware that good nutrition for the children is vital to develop their health, abilities and learning. For TECHO, it is an honor to create this important partnership with Subway Costa Rica, through which we also make visible the situation of children living in poverty,” added Hernández Martíne .

The after school program in Guararí de Heredia is currently held at a community hall whose conditions are not adequate to carry out the program activities. Thus TECHO sought out a partner to help build a new space where children cal also receive a nutritious lunch as part of the educational activities.

In Costa Rica, there are 305,231 households in poverty, and 86,663 households in extreme poverty, according to data from the 2017 National Household Survey (ENAHO).

TECHO, also known as Un Techo para mi País (UTPMP) (Spanish for A Roof For My Country), is a nonprofit organization that mobilizes youth volunteers to fight extreme poverty in Latin America, by constructing transitional housing and implementing social inclusion programs. It was founded by a Jesuit priest, and working with more than 720,000 volunteers, it has constructed houses for over 102,400 families in 19 countries in Latin American and the Caribbean and 2 offices located in Miami, FL, USA and London, England that work as fundraising hubs.

Subway is a privately held American fast food restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches (subs) and salads. Subway is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the world and, as of June 2017, has approximately 45,000 stores located in more than 100 countries. More than half of the stores are located in the United States. It is the largest single-brand restaurant chain and the largest restaurant operator in the world.