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COVID-19 cases are quickly growing in Central America. Like you, Paso Pacífico recognizes that partnering with healthy local communities is the only way to succeed in conservation. In late February, we realized that COVID-19 posed a major threat to the Central American region and began to take action. Soon after, our staff bought soap and cleaning supplies in bulk for personnel and local communities. Our first Junior Ranger education activity in March focused on preventive hygiene such as hand washing.
As Central American borders began to close and El Salvador's government shut down our projects there in mid-March, many staff members began working from home. Our community rangers socially distanced while carefully patrolling forests and beaches. Now, like many, almost all Paso Pacífico team members are working from the safety of their homes—organizing and digitizing monitoring data, planning sea turtle conservation activities, and helping their families.
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Although Nicaragua's schools are still open, Junior Ranger meetings have been put on hold. Our environmental education coordinator, Anna Chévez, has provided parents with lessons and activities Junior Rangers could do from home. Many of these kids are newly able to participate remotely because of a recent gift of art kits from children in Provo, Utah.
This pandemic and the trade reduction caused by it will have severe impacts on local economies. Last month, anticipating growing humanitarian needs, we created the COVID-19 emergency fund. Friends like you responded with incredible generosity, giving over $7,000 already! These funds are being leveraged with other humanitarian groups to ensure that the most vulnerable families in the Paso del Istmo receive basic necessities during these difficult times. Remote communities in El Salvador are also receiving aid through this fund.
We heartily thank everyone who has given so far, and provide the link here for anyone else who would like to help.
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Julio Collado Vanegas, usually called Don Julio, was born and raised in the fishing village of Ostional, Nicaragua. He has honed his leadership skills throughout his life, following the footsteps of his now-80-year-old mother, a member of the council of elders. Ostional and many of the villages where Paso Pacífico works are indigenous communities, and their identity has influenced Julio's life and career.
In college, Julio studied to be a construction engineer but soon became very interested in community development and indigenous rights. After taking numerous courses in community development, he began to work throughout Nicaragua in programs advocating for community management. He started working for us in 2015 in our reforestation program. His role expanded over time, and today he coordinates our entire community ranger program. We are grateful to be working with an experienced leader who is attuned to the Paso del Istmo's cultural history and importance.
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Wildfires can be a destructive force in the seasonally dry tropical forests. Fortunately, there are expert Central American firefighters. The Guanacaste Conservation Area (ACG) in Costa Rica has one of the longest-running firefighting programs with some of the best trained firefighters in the region.
Over the past four weeks, our community ranger Felix Reyes has attended training exercises with them, gaining experience with firefighting equipment and a new knowledge of suppression techniques. He will share this know-how with our ranger team in Nicaragua. We are extremely grateful to the ACG and their fire captain Julio Díaz for making this training opportunity possible.
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Nicaragua's response to COVID-19 was recently featured in a story by NPR: "The [Nicaraguan] government failed to issue stay-at-home or social distancing orders, . . . Ortega decried the pandemic as a sign from God and said the U.S. should spend less on atomic bombs and more on hospitals. Ortega . . . rejected shutting down the economy, saying if Nicaraguans don't work, they will die." Read more here. Our hearts hurt for the communities many of you have met. To help, please contribute to our aid fund here.
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PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE
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The PRBB Foundation was founded in 2006 to support and empower women, their families, and the environment. Last year, they began supporting our women's oyster cooperatives. On March 31, 2020, they generously approved a rapid response grant that enabled us to buy and distribute the cooperatives' oysters to needy families! Using this traditional local protein was a win for the people receiving it, sustainable fisheries, women's empowerment, and a more equitable world.
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Thank you to Franklin Ruiz Morales, Hal Brindley, Junior Ranger parents, and Paso Pacífico staff members Anna Chévez, Felix Reyes, and Eliza Woolley for contributing photos used in this month's newsletter.
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