The Santa Fe Women's Group

The Santa Fe Women's Group is a dedicated community organization in the community of Santa Fe de Guatuso. The Guatuso county is a part of Costa Rica's Northern Zone, largely dedicated to agriculture and cattle farming.

See how the Santa Fe Women's Group achieved energy indpendence with its biogas project

In July of 2003, the Santa Fe Women's Group was formed by its 16 founding members. In order to provide children of low-income families with Christmas presents, the 16 women decided that only together could they achieve this goal. In this spirit, the women's group had the first annual Santa Fe Christmas Party. The new tradition has been a success from the start, allowing families of limited resources to partake in the gift-giving spirit of Christmas, as well as uniting the entire community in this important time of year.

Soon after founding the Women's Group, however, its members began to see other benefits of organizing themselves. The group began to look into different capacity-building activities, like exchanging ideas in activities with other established women's groups, as well as taking courses with the Costa Rican National Learning Institute. (Click here to learn about all of the educational activities) With these experiences under their belts, the women decided to look into different community projects they could administer.

The first major project that the group conceived was its biogas project. With the help of the local Agriculture Ministry, the women learned about biogas and the construction and maintenance of biodigester tanks. With this knowledge the group was able to build 16 biodigesters, each of which produces fuel for all the cooking needs of a family. (Click here to learn more about this biogas project)

As the women's group was finishing its biogas project, the women decided to delve into another important environmental theme: Wetlands Conservation. The community of Santa Fe is surrounded by wetlands, but few people in the area had a deep knowledge of the wetlands' importance, nor the environmental law under which wetlands are covered. As of now, the Santa Fe Wetlands are in private hands and are not recognized by the Costa Rican government as wetlands. However, with the collaborative effort of the Santa Fe Women's Group, Alianzas, IUCN, and MINAE, the Costa Rican Natural Resources Agency, the Santa Fe Wetlands will be recognized as an important biological corridor of the Rio Frio Basin, protected and maintained by the Santa Fe Women's Group. (Click here to learn more about these efforts in wetlands conservation)

To complement the wetlands conservation project, the Santa Fe Women's Group started another project to promote the environmental health of the region. In June of 2006 the group built a nursery to support its efforts in reforesting Santa Fe and its surrounding communities with a variety of tree species. While working together with local primary schools, the group is helping create a generation of conscious Costa Ricans by teaching them the virtues of reforestation through schoolyard gardens. By involving the local schools in this project, the group is helping ensure that the effects of the project be felt for generations to come. (Click here to learn more about this reforestation project)

A current project that also has to do with the education of Santa Fe youngsters is the Women's Group's effort to bring a Colegio Telesecundaria, or Video High School, to the rural town. While transportation to the nearest high school is made difficult by poor road conditions, a Video High School will make secondary education accessible to all children in Santa Fe and its surrounding communities. (Click here to learn more about these efforts in rural education)

With all of these successful community projects, as well as useful educational experiences, up and running, the Women's Group has gained the confidence necessary to start its own business. This web site is a part of the Women's Group's first enterprising project, rural tourism. The group's venture into rural tourism comes from its desire to share its many ongoing community projects and its fun activities with people from different parts of the world. Visitors to Santa Fe have always been impressed with the warmth and dedication of the Santa Fe Women's Group, making a rural tourism project ideal to accompany the Women's Group's various activities. Unlike other forms of tourism, the rural tourism in Santa Fe allows visitors to work alongside local Costa Rican women on important local projects that deal with pressing global concerns. If you want to see all of the possible activities you can carry out in Santa Fe, Click here to go to the rural tourism page.

Copyright 2007 Rural Costa Rica, a Costa Rica Travel Affiliate