This is one of the most important activities of the educational and solidarity center of the Augustinian Recollects: keeping its doors open to civil society seeking to reinforce in its beneficiaries the need for encounter and collaboration.
Among the many daily activities that form part of the work of the Boys’ Town, the educational and solidarity center of the Augustinian Recollects near Cartago (Costa Rica), the reception of visitors and the hosting of institutional collaborators are really important in the institutional field.
The Boys’ Town is the home where more than five hundred young people receive comprehensive care that includes formal education, vocational training, food, health care, arts and sports, healthy leisure, as well as training in human and social values that allow them to build strong and determined personalities to break the cycles of poverty or exclusion.
To achieve these objectives, the institution needs a good relationship with society; on the one hand, it is necessary for the comprehensive training of the beneficiaries to be the most up-to-date through contact with companies and professionals; on the other hand, so that young students understand that social and professional life requires stable and positive relationships; and finally, because the institution itself needs public and private collaboration for its maintenance, improvement and implementation.
Visits to the Boys’ Town are carefully planned; visitors get to know the facilities, talk to beneficiaries and monitors, managers and religious people, and try to better understand the life of their young students and the future that is sought to be offered to them with each educational activity or each promotion of values.
Among the most recent visits we can highlight the past visit by the group Instinct Bars, a team that is fond of calisthenics and street workout. Their presence led many of the beneficiaries to train and participate in their activities.
The members of this group regularly promote free sport and good sporting values as a way to learn to be good citizens and active young people in local communities.
On the other hand, students of Precision Mechanics went out to visit the companies Technimatriz and AMC Constructions in metal. They were welcomed with open arms to learn about the manufacture of moulds, the processes of injection of materials or the electroerosion machines.
Days later, Luis Piedra, a public accountant, came to the City to offer an interactive training meeting with the students focused on financial life and self-management. His workshop, of a socio-educational and financial nature, focuses on young people learning strategies to make healthy decisions, make realistic budgets, avoid illogical expenses and debts and use their resources in the best possible way.
On July 4, Commissioner Freddy Guillén, director of the Public Force, visited the Boys’ Town, accompanied by the deputy director, commander José Pérez, and the chief of operations, sub-intendant Ricardo Elizondo. The event served to provide mutual knowledge, to update the security situation and to commit to offering the beneficiaries a safe environment and promoting a society of law.
Finally, on July 5, the Boys’ Town received a private visit from the former President of the Government of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, accompanied by his immediate family. The Spanish authorities maintain an important relationship with the Boys’ Town through the Embassy, through various agreements and projects carried out throughout history with different public administrations in the European country and due to the Spanish origin of many of the Augustinian Recollects who have been members of the religious community of the Boys’ Town throughout its history.
