Mother's Day Gift
GIVE BRICKS, CHANGE LIVES FOR MOTHERS DAY
1 Brick = $4 US
5000 Bricks = Community Learning Sharing Center
DONATE BRICKS NOW
The Community Learning and Sharing Center (CLSC) is MCF’s most ambitious project to date. MCF is coordinating the construction of a naturally-built CLSC in the center of Mastatal. The structure will be erected using local labor and resources. It will eventually be home to scores of Spanish books and space where local entrepreneurs can operate small businesses. MCF envisions this location to become the social center of town and a place that all community members can be proud to call their own. It will demonstrate their dedication to a sustainable way of living and serve as a place to educate both the youth of the surrounding towns and visitors to the community about ways that we must live to improve the well-being of our planet and the social fabric of our communities.
The CLSC at Mastatal will serve the community in a variety of ways including as a library, an artisan center, a place to learn and an inviting and gentle alternative place to meet. This center will be a destination for learning as there is not a “library” for miles (2 hours by car). Furthermore, the CLSC will make learning more palatable even for the telesecundaria (middle school) school children that are located right next door.
The CLSC will invite women and children and people otherwise limited in the rural constructs of society. There are extremely few spaces that the women can work together and meet outside of the home. There are women in the community that have an entrepreneurial spirit and are interested in starting a women’s coop. One vision for the CLSC is to serve the female population as a place for hope, collaboration and a place to make their educational and entrepreneurial dreams become a reality.
The CLSC will be inclusive by nature – from initial planning to construction to implementation – Mastataleños will be participating in their future. The CLSC will help develop a culture of reading where many adults currently can’t or don’t read and may provide a space for local entrepreneurs to sell their goods. It can become a destination for learning and responsible business and living.
The CLSC at Mastatal can be an important model for responsible community development. It is a model we need in a world of unchecked and reactionary growth. Costa Rica has experienced substantial economic and social expansion in comparison to the rest of Central America. They abandoned their military over fifty years ago. They focused on education, nationwide electricity, public health, the establishment of a national park system, a conservation ethic, and a subsequent ecotourism industry.
Tourism is one of the largest industries in Costa Rica with large amounts of money brought in to the country. One of the unfortunate results has been a shortsighted, irresponsible growth for the sake of quick money. Their social structure and world famous tropical forests are suffering as a result. MCF’s goal is to reduce Mastatal’s growing pains by supporting a conservation ethic and facilitating further education. The CLSC will cultivate creative ideas about how to grow as a community, how to do business, how to be healthy, and how to share, learn and hope while simultaneously creating a responsible development model for Costa Rica and possibly the developing world.
Many communities and individuals have bitten at the opportunity to make easy money only to regret their decisions after fully realizing the impact that their choices have on family and community. Mastataleños are evaluating, assessing and moving forward. The CLSC will help make the path forward a smooth, healthy and scenic one. MCF can help consummate a beautiful vision about how a community may grow. The rest we leave to Luck and God, as the mastataleños say.