Introduction
[Richard Bexon]
Good morning, Mariola, how are you doing?
[Mariola Fumero]
Good morning, I’m good, how are you?
[Richard Bexon]
Very, very good, thank you. I’m here in Manuel Antonio at the moment, so it’s not raining, the weather’s pretty good.
[Mariola Fumero]
I’m glad, yeah.
Market Volatility Impact on Costa Rica Social Programs
[Richard Bexon]
Mariola, well, let’s jump straight into it. You know, I mean, there’s been a lot of, I would say, volatility in Western markets, you know, over the past, I mean, I would say over the past year, probably even post-pandemic, it’s been pretty crazy. But I mean, how has all this like affected lifting hands and also, you know, what you guys are doing and what you’re seeing here in Costa Rica?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, well, actually, we’ve been working non-stop since more than 15 years ago. And when the pandemic came, when it hit Costa Rica, it was a disaster, actually, because we had like, we had been working for 10 years with no teen pregnancies and with no kids getting involved into the narco economy, right?
[Richard Bexon]
Yep.
[Mariola Fumero]
And during the first like two months of the pandemic, we had like six new pregnancies in under 15 year olds, and like five kids were involved in the narco economy. And yeah, it was a disaster. And our work is face to face.
We build community centers in the communities where we work at. And the kids come every afternoon, right? So all our work had to go online in just a couple of weeks.
We built like a super big campaign to start to help these families, because they mainly work as maids in houses, right? Yep. And construction and everything was like, everything stopped.
So they didn’t have an income. They didn’t have what to eat or what to give their kids, right? So we started to give them food for, we gave them food for nine months, all 2020.
And we moved our programs from face to face to online. And we started to see the impact, like the negative impact of the pandemic, of all the kids being at their homes with nothing to do, right? But in 2021, we came back with face masks and everything.
And we had to rebuild a program. The program we had before 2020 was not working anymore. So we rebuilt.
And we’re still rebuilding, but it’s working. So that’s good. We could expand our work to another community in Cartago.
And yeah, and we, right now we’re thinking on expanding again.
Cartago Success and Guanacaste Expansion Plans
[Richard Bexon]
Good for you. Good for you. I mean, where are you guys thinking about expanding to? I mean, you mentioned that you had a place in Cartago. Where else have you guys got places and where would you like to be?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah. So actually, we did some research. Usually when we expand, we build like a matrix with all the variables we need for a lift in us to work. And in our last research and our last matrix, right? We discovered that Guanacaste is in very bad shape right now. There is a lot of narco economy.
There is a lot of teen pregnancies. It’s like how we call it in here. It’s like the dark side of tourism and all that.
Yeah, all the new touristic places we have in Guanacaste. And in the coast. So yeah, we’re trying to expand to places like Nosara, Santa Teresa, which is not Guanacaste, but it’s the Pacific, right?
Close to Tamarindo and close to Peninsula of Papagayo, which are like the four main touristic places that we have right now in Guanacaste. Where all these like narco economy problem and pregnancies.
Costa Rica Safety and Investment Climate
[Richard Bexon]
You’ve mentioned the word narco now like three or four times. I mean, do you think Costa Rica is still a good place? Is it a safe place to live and invest in them?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, I wouldn’t live here if it wasn’t safe. It’s a safe place to live, but we need to do something. Because it’s been super safe for the last many, many, many years, right?
It’s always been safe. But if there’s people who are coming to live here and people who want drugs, then the narco economy grows. So it’s like the dark side of tourism also.
Because many people who go to other countries for vacations, sometimes they want drugs or alcohol, right?
Santa Teresa and Nosara Gentrification Challenges
[Richard Bexon]
That’s very true. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned, I mean, I think there’s been a lot of, you’ve mentioned areas like San Teresa and El Sala, which there’s been a lot of noise around gentrification in these areas.
Do you think it’s real? But also is what’s your advice to expats coming down here that are looking to live down here for a while, looking to invest, maybe even looking to move, you know, to just really integrate into these communities and not, you know, create more gentrification?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, well, I think it’s not something I can believe or not. It’s something that it’s going on. I think it’s a problem of the government because they didn’t build laws to prevent that it happens.
And it also happens with us. Like, of course, people from San Jose would love to go to Anacostia and buy land and live at the beach, right? Like it’s so beautiful.
Yeah, it’s everyone’s dream, right? But the problem is when you want to go there and you want to take advantage of like poor people who own land and you want to look for opportunities, right? Like, oh yeah, I’m going to buy $100,000 land from a local person who is poor and $100,000 is like all they could dream of for forever.
And maybe for you is $1, right? Like that comparison is too much.
Tourism Opportunities Across Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast
[Richard Bexon]
You don’t think that also this tourism brings a lot of opportunities because I know a lot of Costa Rican entrepreneurs, engineers, architects, interior designers, gardening people, poor people that have started their business. Like the opportunity is there, if that makes sense.
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, there’s a lot of opportunity. I think that tourism is good. We love tourism.
Like actually, I don’t know if you’ve read but this has been the worst year in tourism in Costa Rica for the last, I don’t know how many years, like six years, I think that I read. And no, three, I think. And it’s bad for our economy.
Like we love tourism. It’s one of our main industries, right? The problem is when it’s like the dark side of tourism and that’s why we need this kind of programs like Lifting Hands to help address this negative part and rebuild them so that they are positive, right?
So for example, one of the things that we do is, as I told you, we go to the community, we build a community center and then tourists can also come and volunteer there. So like- Yeah, it’s super powerful. So someone can come and be an English teacher for four months, for one hour per week, right?
And then they can see the impact of what they’re doing and they can give back on the community where they came, they bought land or they’re renting and they’re living and they can get involved with the community. They can get to know the parents of the kids and they can get to know the kids also and the adolescents and it can help to change this dark side of tourism into a positive side of tourism. And yeah, of course, what you’re saying, it’s super positive to have tourism and to have like foreigners coming to live here.
I think that when you come with a mentality of, I want to give back, I want to help, I don’t wanna come to impose my culture, right? But I want to come and like understand what’s going on and how I can help. It’s different, right?
Community Integration Strategies in Costa Rica
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I agree. Well, look, I mean, imposing your culture here never works. I mean, there’ve been many people from Europe and North America that have tried to come down.
Look, in the moment I’m in deep construction with Nicaraguans and Costa Ricans. Like there is no way I’m giving them my culture. Like if their culture or the highway, I just need to find a way to kind of surf the wave or swim basically the tide there.
But yeah, I mean, I think that’s one piece of advice I always give people. It’s like, look, you’re not gonna change anything here really. Like you have to kind of accept it how it is and over years just slowly sand it down and improve it.
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, yeah. And there’s always way in which you can help like to change things. For example, just teaching someone how to speak English.
You can change someone’s life by doing that. Like if someone lives in Huaste and they live like with tourism next to them, like they have to learn how to speak English. So if you can help someone to learn a new language that is going to change their life, then you’re doing something positive.
You’re not imposing your culture, but you’re helping someone to learn something from you and from your country or your region, whatever, right? And you can transform a life by doing that.
Lifting Hands Program Structure and Methodology
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I mean, I agree. Look, I mean, we’ve done quite a bit of stuff here in our company, we’re a company. We’ve actually started, I think, FACOS for Tiquas years back.
You know, but we actually had our clients in the travel company bring down, you know, football cleats, football boots and all the football stuff. And we ran the football academy and taught kids to do it. And now the kids run the football academy.
You know, it’s been very interesting watching it kind of, you know, transpire over 15 years. But I mean, going back to lifting hands, I mean, how would you guys describe some of the stuff that you guys do? I mean, you mentioned some English classes.
I mean, what other stuff do you guys do?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, so it’s a poverty reduction program in which we work with all the mental health stuff, right? That is super needed after the pandemic. And we also have all like the technical part of the program that is like learning how to cook so that you can work in that in the future or understand that that’s what you wanna do in the future. All the artistic part, sports, also for health, right? And music also. Then we have all the vocational part of the program in which we work with over 15 year olds to teach them how to build a CV or a resume, right?
How to go to an interview, where to look for a new job, how you should behave at a new job, right? And something that I think that it’s so beautiful about the program is that we don’t tell them so you need to be an engineer or you need to be a doctor, right? Like the main careers.
No, you can do whatever you want. Just do it with passion and be the best one at doing it and you’ll be good in life with it. Like just find your- I agree.
There’s like a word- Superpower.
[Richard Bexon]
Let’s find your superpower.
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, look for your element. Like what you’re passionate about and what you’re good at.
[Richard Bexon]
The best that you can be, that’s it. Focus all your energy. Well, I mean, look, we get a wide range of stuff at school and everything.
I have a company and my job here is I just hire good people sometimes. And then after a while, I find their superpower and then able to move them into a position that uses their superpower.
And then continue to invest in training and everything for them because again, it makes them happier and basically everyone’s happier.
So it can just be difficult sometimes finding that in young people, of course. Especially, there’s a lot of distraction as well.
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, of course. But I love that. I love that concept of superpowers.
Actually, you know, our four to seven year old classroom is named Superpowers Classroom.
[Richard Bexon]
Wow, yeah, even they’ve got superpowers.
Volunteer Model and Cost Efficiency Across Costa Rica
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, and something that I would like to add is that we work with volunteers. So it’s a super low cost program because everyone who works at the NGO, but me who I’m the executive director, so I’m looking for funds and like with all the oversight of the programs, but everyone else, they just coordinate volunteers. So there’s someone who is like in charge of that community center, who is talking to the volunteers, and giving them like all the tools they need to be able to implement our programs.
There’s someone who is in charge of coordinating psychologists or counselors. So everyone is like coordinating, right? So we save around $300,000 per year just by volunteers.
All the hours that we don’t pay.
[Richard Bexon]
That’s a lot of money that can go back to the kids.
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, it’s a lot of money. So it’s a super powerful program, low cost. And right now with this expansion to Anacostia, we’re looking for people who want to invest in the program.
As I told you, we have everything to expand. We only need the initial investment to be able to do it. And yeah.
Investment Requirements and Donation Opportunities
[Richard Bexon]
How much are you looking for? Just so the listeners can see. How much are you looking for? How do people donate? Like, how do they get involved?
[Mariola Fumero]
Yeah, yeah, I’ll say everything. So to start the program with like a very low profile, we need $150,000 to do the full program for the first five years. That is what we usually want to have to be able to start.
We need $1 million. But also, for example, if someone comes and tells us like, well, I have land and we can look for someone to pay for the construction, for example, it would be, yeah.
Depending on what we want to build, it’s the price, right?
But that diminishes the cost of the program like a lot. So it depends on what we can get from the community and what we can get like in cash. To give, someone would just need to text us, email us, go into our social media, which is Lifting Hands.
You’ll see like the logo LH and we’ll put the information, right, in the text of the podcast. And yeah, and we can talk, we can have a video call. And if the person doesn’t live in Costa Rica, then I can do like a tour, a live tour in one of our locations so that you can see like in real time and see the kids and everything of what we do and how we do it and see that it’s real. Something that I love about Lifting Hands is that I always tell people like, you can come anytime. Like everything we’re saying is true. We don’t have anything to hide, right?
Which is something that usually a foreigner would be like a little accepted, right, about something. But we’re like open doors. Everyone can come anytime.
And we also have a partner in the U.S. who is our like sponsor from the U.S. who can like, they receive donations. They have the tax exemption, the 501c, yeah, in the U.S. And then they sponsor our program. So we have that benefit in the U.S. too.
Generational Change and Cycle Breaking in Costa Rica
[Richard Bexon]
It sounds awesome, Mariela. Again, I think it’s one of these things that definitely helps in generation, and just as you said, gives the Lifting Hands telepathy and people in local communities. I’ve had a lot of involvement over the years.
I mean, I think that’s where it’s to start. You work there. I mean, it takes generations sometimes, but sometimes you just got to break the cycle.
I think that’s kind of to an extent sometimes what we’re trying to do because if people don’t know what else is out there or don’t get access to that stuff, then you can just stay in the same cycle forever, unfortunately. So yeah, but well, Mariela, this has been an absolute pleasure having you on here. My last question for you, which I love to ask everyone, if you had $500,000 to invest into a business or real estate in Costa Rica, where would you invest it and why?
Guanacaste Investment Strategy and Social Impact
[Mariola Fumero]
Of course in Guanacaste, of course. Yeah, after the pandemic, Guanacaste has been like gold in Costa Rica and I would invest it in real estate, probably in Guanacaste, yeah.
[Richard Bexon]
Awesome. Well, probably real estate with like basically the lifting hands office next door so that you can work between San Jose and something like that. Of course, of course, yeah.
Awesome.
[Mariola Fumero]
Of course, in Guanacaste real estate, if it’s for creating change, lifting hands, of course.
[Richard Bexon]
Cool, we’ll do both together. They can both work together, right? So Mariela, it’s been an absolute pleasure.
Anyone that wants to get in contact with Mariela and the team over at Lifting Hands, I’ll put all the contact details in the description down below. I’ll be very much appreciate you joining us on the podcast today.
[Mariola Fumero]
Thank you so much for the space and your time.
[Richard Bexon]
No worries, Mariela, have a great day.
[Mariola Fumero]
You too. Bye.
