The Costa Rica Food Bank celebrates its 6th anniversary by reaching a total of 247 social organizations and benefiting an approximate 40,648 people. What started as an initiative by 10 private companies to guarantee food to people in poverty and avoid the waste of food, has now grown from reaching 5 social organizations to a total 247 which receive food and first necessity items. These soc...

The Toucan Rescue Ranch in Costa Rica is located in the area of San Isidro, Heredia, it is a wildlife sanctuary, rescue, rehabilitation and release center. Established in 2004 by Leslie Howle and Jorge Murillo initially only as a rescue center for toucans and other birds, it quickly expanded to care for other injured, confiscated and sick wildlife animals (sloths, monkeys, macaws, owls, among ...

The Romelia Wildlife Refuge is located near Montezuma, on the Nicoya Península, Puntarenas, and it was created on November 24th, 1998 as a result of the initiative of Albert Ingalls and Gitza Gatti, and is part of the biological corridor of the Tempisque Conservation Area, (Cabo Blanco Absolute Reserve, Curu Mixed Wildlife Reserve, Karen Morgensen Reserve, Nicholas Wessberg Reserve and the Romelia...

Travelling is something most of us enjoy, there are many ways of vacationing and sometimes the popular vacation experience just takes you to the most beautiful places in a country but doesn’t allow you to really explore the country’s culture, the way of living, traditions, and needs. Turtle Trax S.A. in Costa Rica offers precisely that, it is a company that organizes rural tourism projects on t...

The U.S. Peace Corps program in Costa Rica is searching for local talent to fill a new position. The program manager would be responsible for, "Building a Response Corps program of 10-15 Peace Corps Response Volunteer positions per year. Work in close collaboration with other PC Staff and local organizations to support Peace Corps/Costa Rica programs. Train and oversee the Peace Corps Response ...

The Rangers on Cocos Island need a fast patrol vessel and Sea Shepherd can supply that need. Sea Shepherd arrives in Costa Rica today with an offer to assist the Central American country in controlling illegal fishing in the waters surrounding its Cocos Island National Park. The non-profit, anti-poaching conservation society has offered to deploy the M/V John Paul DeJoria, a 110-foot...

A report presented last week by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said their teams in Mexico treating migrants show a “pattern of violent displacement, persecution, sexual violence, and forced repatriation akin to the conditions found in the deadliest armed conflicts in the world today,” in people fleeing El Salvador, Hondura...

Upala and Bagaces are the two communities in Costa Rica that were more strongly hit by Otto Hurricane, the heavy rain and strong wind, washed away in just a few hours everything some families possessed. Houses, cars, businesses… gone. The photos and videos of the areas show the devastation left behind by this phenomenon of nature. The impotence of the emergency services, and the population in ...

The Broader View network for volunteering overseas recently announced updates to is Costa Rica sea turtle conservation program, which takes place in the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Following are details from the press release: Are you interested in volunteering with wild life? If so, why not become a Costa Rica Sea Turtle Volunteer? This opportunity gives you a chance to experience sea tur...

Source: DVIDSBy Staff Sgt. Charles Martinez, New Mexico National Guard CUAJINIQUIL, Costa Rica - Eight hours of team work by the New Mexico National Guard’s 1st Platoon, 919th Military Police Company, was all it took to remove one month’s worth of jungle growth from the grounds of a school building in Cuajiniquil, Costa Rica July 20, 2016. Located in the Guanacaste province in the northwestern...

Volmundo.com Oslo, Norway – volmundo.com is a new booking platform to help individuals search and apply for international volunteering and community roles. We are an ethical and transparent recruiting resource for social impact organizations to connect with passionate people who want to contribute to making a positive change. As a social startup we charge individuals just 1 USD per day as a bo...

Main Line Health Press Release - Prior to embarking on a humanitarian trip to Costa Rica, Villa Maria Academy High School juniors, seniors and their parents received advice from Main Line Health’s Chief of Infectious Diseases, who helped separate fact from fiction regarding the Zika virus epidemic. “Traveling to areas affected by the Zika Virus, such as Central America, does pose a risk” said D...

Source: Twitter Justin Smith is a United States high school student from Maryland who dreams of coming to Costa Rica for two reasons: He wants to do volunteer work at a local orphanage and also at various wildlife rescue and research centers. Justin is a reader of The Costa Rica Star. He is enrolled at Salisbury Christian School, where students are given opportunities outside of the classro...

Source: Courts for Kids Courts for Kids, a charitable organization based in the United States, recently visited Costa Rica to build a basketball court in an economically challenged community. Thanks to the hard work of high school students and employees from a major insurance company, the village of Rancho Quemado, located in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica, near the Osa Peninsula, n...

Seeds of Hope staff with the girls they rescue in Costa Rica For more than three years, a woman from the United States has provided advocacy and hope to young victims of sexual exploitation in Costa Rica. Penny Williams, a businesswoman from Southern California, was recently profiled in the Valley Roadrunner, a newspaper serving the community of Valley Center near San Diego. Ms. Williams' non-...

Sea Shepherd Media Release – Volunteers for the 2015 Sea Turtle Defense Campaign Operation Jairo are currently on the ground in Costa Rica and Honduras, defending endangered nesting turtles and their eggs from poaching. With an average of only one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings surviving to adulthood, these imperiled marine animals need our help in order to have a fighting chance against extinctio...

Source: Sea Shepherd SEA SHEPHERD Media Release -- A group of 11 volunteers working with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s Sea Turtle Defense Campaign Operation Jairo were physically attacked by poachers last night during a peaceful patrol of Costa Rica’s Pacuare Beach to locate and protect nesting endangered turtles and their eggs. Two volunteers sustained minor injuries. Upon spotting t...

Green Life Volunteers (Press Release) – We’re pleased to offer a new and very special project: You can work as a park ranger volunteer at the most INCREDIBLE conservation sites in Caño Island and Corcovado National Park of Costa Rica. The Ministry of Environment (MINAET), the entity behind the national parks in Costa Rica, is looking for enthusiastic people who love nature and would like to help o...

Wikimedia Commons Santiago, Jun 17 (EFE).- Timaukel, a municipality on the southern tip of South America in the heart of Chilean Patagonia, is seeking 145 families willing to settle and build a town in one of the most sparsely populated corners of the Earth. "Just this past weekend, we received 1,600 information requests via e-mail," Mayor Alfonso Simunovic told Efe. "We didn't expect to at...

Playa Nosara, Guanacaste San Diego, California (PRWEB) June 12, 2015 -- The Frederick K. Swaniker Scholarship for Global Citizenship, formed in partnership with visionary African leader Fred Swaniker, has announced 18 inaugural recipients of the organizations’ signature award, which is designed to inspire the next generation of young leaders to propose solutions to global challenges and change...

Poacher caugh in the act. Source: Sea Shepherd SEA SHEPHERD Media Release -- Just days after the May 31st launch of sea turtle defense campaign Operation Jairo, Sea Shepherd volunteers have located and stopped a poaching operation on Costa Rica’s Pacuare Beach. Shortly after darkness began to fall on the night of June 4th, Sea Shepherd volunteers were preparing to begin their nightly beach ...

They miss Jairo. Source: Sea Shepherd The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recently announced Operation Jairo, a sea turtle protection campaign that will take place this summer in southeastern Florida, Honduras and Costa Rica. Among the sites to be patrolled by Sea Shepherd volunteers this season is Moin Beach in Costa Rica’s Caribbean province of Limón, the site of the tragic murder of young...

Jairo Mora loved to teach children about nature. Wikimedia Commons April 23, 2015 – FRIDAY HARBOR, Wash. – Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (Sea Shepherd) announces sea turtle defense campaign Operation Jairo, to take place this summer in three regions critical to nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings – southeastern Florida, Honduras and Costa Rica. Last season, Sea Shepherd was involved i...

Jaco Beach, COSTA RICA (PRWEB) April 23, 2015 – Lost Beach Vacations, Costa Rica’s leading condominium vacation rental firm has announced the completion of a recent community service project that brought together a local school, the community of Jaco Beach, and student volunteers from the United States. Earlier this month, as part of community outreach efforts by Lost Beach Vacations, the Escue...

Source: Hillside Sedona Sedona, AZ (PRWEB) March 16, 2015 – Hillside Sedona is pleased to announce that the Umbrella Project Event will take place on April 24, 25 and 26th and will benefit a underprivileged school in Costa Rica. Started in 1990 by Hilda Brown, the Umbrella Project is a 501c (3) nonprofit raising funds for various causes. In years past, proceeds from the sales of the umbrell...

Source: Indiana State University For many students of colleges and universities in the United States, an ideal spring break vacation in Costa Rica should involve spending time at the beach, partying with friends, and drinking copious amounts of beer. For students of Indiana State University who choose to enroll in their Alternative Spring Break program, coming to Costa Rica will mean volunteer...

Source: Recovery Ranch One of the most important aspects of recovery from substance abuse is being able to once again provide meaningful contributions to society. Here is a very good example of such an action taking place in Costa Rica, specifically in the Nicoya region of the Guanacaste province. The Costa Rica Star thanks Recovery Ranch for this inspiring press release and for their excellen...

Source: Baxter International The following corporate press release is kindly provided by Baxter International, a global healthcare firm that develops, manufactures and markets products that save and sustain the lives of people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma, and other chronic and acute medical conditions. Baxter has a presence in Costa Rica and m...

Giamo Jackson Carter Each year, dozens of people from around the world arrive in Costa Rica to volunteer in various special programs and projects that aim to improve the living conditions of both Ticos and foreign visitors in our country. There are many wonderful volunteer opportunities in our country, and one of them is in the teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) field. Despite the ...

The first major land-based marine conservancy effort carried out in Costa Rica by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, founded by the ever-controversial Canadian activist Paul Watson, has wrapped up its operations for the year. Reports by Sea Shepherd and the Latin American Sea Turtles Association (LAST) are calling Operation Pacuare a success.   Before getting to the Sea Shepherd pre...

  Source: Fuerza Publica The canton of Garabito in Puntarenas is home to some of the most eco-friendly police officers in Costa Rica. Two years ago, members of Fuerza Pública (Costa Rica's national police force) who patrol the Jaco Beach and Playa Hermosa communities decided to open their own nesting sanctuary for olive ridley sea turtles. This initiative was prompted by the need to pr...

Paul Watson with actress Daryl Hannah. Creative Commons. The ice bucket challenge to raise awareness and funds towards research and treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) has reached the Presidential Office of Costa Rica. Challenged by a radio personality from 104.3 FM (Los 40 Principales or Top 40), President Luis Guillermo Solis respectfully decl...

When a devastating earthquake hit Haiti in July 2010, within 30 frightening seconds, 220,000 were left dead. In the wake of this tragedy, nearly one million children were orphaned or abandoned. To simply sit back and only contemplate the atrocity of this situation was not an option for Nosara resident Kristin O’Connell. She felt the need to act. After volunteering as a midwife in Haiti in 2010,...

Guanacaste Community FundWhile the Costa Rica-USA Foundation (CRUSA) has been funding national environmental and educational projects for 18 years, its newest initiative, the Guanacaste Community Fund, will focus exclusively on Guanacaste-based societal improvements. The Fund’s executive director, Steve Mack, appointed by CRUSA’s Governing Board of Directors in August, said he has already dis...

On Thursday afternoon, January 16th – 1st full moon of 2014 – nearly every person in Playa Hermosa came to the beach for Salve Monos Playa Hermosa, GTE., Costa Rica’s 3rd Annual Drumming Circle. The event is held each year to raise awareness of the howler monkey plight and to raise funds that benefit Playa Hermosa’s monkeys. Karol Allard, Treasurer of the Association de Vecinos y Empresarios de Pl...

Volunteers from The Monkey Farm: Daniel Blanco Jaime, Bonnie Gwathmey, Vicki Conley, Uyku Tulumu and Tomi-Pekka Astikainen The Monkey Farm in Playa Ocotal, just five minutes from Playas del Coco, is having an Open House Sunday, January 5th from noon until 5:00. The Monkey Farm is a non-profit organic, sustainable farm and future wildlife rescue center, run entirely by volunteers from all over...

Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula is renowned by scientists, explorers and nature lovers as an astounding paradise of biological diversity. The southern Pacific Ocean off the Osa Peninsula is natural wonder of marine life, home to more than 25 species of dolphins and whales, four of the world’s eight different sea turtles, along with manta rays, sailfish, marlin, tuna and sharks. The southern Pacific, an...

Walk down the beaches of Santa Teresa, Costa Rica and you’re likely to see multicolored crushed seashells, sea glass, and interesting rocks and pebbles along the white sand. What you won’t see as readily is trash. The Pacific beaches of Santa Teresa – Mal Pais, Playa Carmen, Playa Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa – on Costa Rica’s southern Nicoya Peninsula hold Ecological Blue Flag status. Costa...

Update: Portions of this article have been removed on behalf of a party involved, due to being inaccurate. The remainder of the article will stay intact as the original. Witnessing a monkey electrocuted by un-insulated power lines or transformers is a very disturbing, yet an all too common sight in Playa del Coco and surrounding beach communities. As many well know, the Coco area is a natural ...

The Nosara Red Cross is organizing a family-friendly horse ride with the goal of raising funds for their special vertical rescue unit. The event will be this Saturday, December 14 and will start from the soccer field in La Esperanza. The tour will travel through several different parts of the Nosaran countryside, such as Playa Guiones and Garza. Carlos Villalobos, head of the Red Cross in No...