Sunday, November 27

Thinking about the future

You can travel on 10,000 miles, and still stay where you are – Harry Chapin


Our last full day in Cahuita, Ernesto and I finally found time to sit and talk, and start to plan for the future.

Back in 2006, when the original founder left the organization, a lot of US funding disappeared shortly afterward. The local group that the project transitioned to, while well intentioned, soon lost interest, as the ability to pay salaries decreased along with charitable funding, and before long, as people went to find paying jobs, records were in disarray.

When I got involved in 2008, Ernesto and I decided the best path forward was to create a new Costa Rican non-profit organization and effectively close the old organization by gifting the assets (about 50 computers) to the new organization.

I started finding computers to deploy, Ernesto ran the center, and we received some small funding from US charitable organizations, as well as the Cahuita community, to cover some salary, a couple part time helpers, electricity, phone, internet, and other building costs.

Late 2009, the US recession hit and by mid 2010 all US charitable funding had dried up. In fact, the most supportive organizations, funded no projects at all anywhere in 2011.

What does this mean? Well, the value of the project is well proven to the people of the Talamanca region, and it would be a huge step backwards to stop. Ernesto and his family have to eat, however, and shipping expenses continue to increase with the cost of fuel.

We decided that The Cahuita Technology center can be self sustaining by providing a local computer repair service, fee based internet access, and a slight increase to the cost of adult training. This is not an ideal answer, but a necessary one, I think.

We also need to find a way to get some help at the center. Right now, Ernesto is pretty much on his own. This means that if he needs to leave for any reason – to visit a school,
a doctor’s appointment, or if his daughter is sick, the center closes. And we all know the key to any successful business (non-profit or otherwise) is that it must be open when needed, or people simply find alternatives, and it won’t be self sustaining for long.

There are 13 formal requests from schools for computers, on a clipboard on the wall, totaling well over 100 machines, and only 5 functioning computers available to deploy, so I need to get this shipment on the road as soon as possible. Ernesto and I agreed to a series of regular discussions going forward, as well as producing some regular reports for folks that are interested.

It was a solidly productive meeting.

Afterwards, Dianne and I made rounds saying goodbye to old and new friends, and went off to pack for the bus trip to San Jose.