BRICKS TO BREAD COSTA RICA PROJECTS

SABORES DEL CIELO – CARPINTERO DE SARDINAL

THE COMMUNITY

Carpintero is a small community of homes approximately five miles from the beaches of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Located on the outskirts of Sardinal, a town of about 21,000 residents, Carpintero has two churches and a little grocery store, but their greatest needs are employment for women, a school, and a recreation area for children. The community has a lot of potential with its location near a highway and a short drive to the beaches popular with tourists, but there are no jobs for women unless they leave home and travel to Sardinal. The oven project is a great benefit to the women of Carpintero and the economy of the area.

THE PROJECT

Sabores del Cielo (“Flavors from Heaven”) is an oven project owned and managed by 10 women. Some are married but their husbands cannot work due to serious illness or injury. Others are the single head of their household supporting children. Multiple generations are represented in the group and one of the women has taken courses in business administration, production management, and customer service. Some of their situations include:

• Pastora Castillo cares for her terminally ill husband and an adult daughter, Marjorie, who has been mute from birth and has vision and hearing problems.

• Karla, Pastora’s other daughter, helps care for her mother, father, and sister. Income from the Bricks to Bread oven helps with her family’s medical bills.

• Norma Lopez Jimenez and her husband, Victor, care for their young daughter as well as Victor’s mother who lives with them.

• Veronica Ramirez and her husband, Ronald, have two children. Ronald has a disability from an accident. He does some carpentry, but other jobs are impossible. The oven enables Veronica to help support her family.

LIVES CHANGED

All of the women have enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to work as a team so they can improve life for their families and their entire community. A neighbor is teaching the group more recipes for making bread, donuts, and empanadas.

From October 7-17, volunteers from Trinity Lutheran Church in Long Lake, MN, worked with the women of Carpintero de Sardinal to build their oven. They shared laughter, meals, games, worship, prayer, celebration, outings, stories, and so much more! Here’s what members of the church and community said about their experience:

• “Participating in my first B2B build was an opportunity to transfer what I knew about the organization from my head to my heart. No words or descriptions can fully capture the transformation that occurs within ourselves and the growth in confidence and agency of the local women and families we come to know and love. I return home with strengthened faith and the knowledge that if we all do something no matter how small – the world is better. The women of Carpintero know that we believe in them and their ability. I know we will keep each other in our hearts!” ~ Melanie DeLuca
  
• “Brick by brick, one at a time, with patience, tools and mortar – a masterpiece is created! An oven, the foundation of success for the woman of Carpintero.” ~ Sarah Hrusovsky
  
• “Juntos todo es posible.” (“Together, everything is possible.”) ~ Norma