Through collaborations with local and international partners, we coordinate projects that investigate and document the history, identity, and human rights of the Afro-descendant and other communities of southern Caribbean Costa Rica (Caribe Sur).
Our goal is to assist the community of Caribe Sur in growing a living public archive and making information about their history and rights more easily accessible both within and outside the community.
CURRENT Projects
Photo Contributed by Christina Zingrich
South Caribe Roots Archive
The South Caribe Roots Archive documents the people, places and events in southern Caribbean, Costa Rica, through family photographs and stories. The project aims to work with the community to develop a digital information platform that is reflective of local knowledge, experience, and social justice objectives. Our primary objectives are to create and mobilize knowledge about this history and identity of residents of the southern Caribbean zone of Costa Rica; to build bridges and dialogue between academic and non-academic stakeholders, and to create a community-based digital archive that preserves community-identified cultural heritage.
100 Years of History Commemorative Digital Album
The project "Reviving old memories of Puerto Viejo” was developed by Glenda Halgarson Brown with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Costa Rica and brought to digital form by the Rich Coast Project. This commemorative album intends to create an inventory of data, photographs, and relevant testimonies of the families that populated Puerto Viejo and its surrounding area and who played a central role in its foundation. The idea is to perpetuate and preserve the historical legacy of these families.
COMING SOON
Photo by Joao Cabrita Silva
Conserving Caribbean Wellness Culture
The Conserving Caribbean Wellness Project is a multi-stakeholder effort spearheaded by the Hidden Garden and the Rich Coast Project to address a lack of documentation of the historic practices of the Afro-Caribbean communities living in the coastal lowlands of Costa Rica’s southern Caribbean coast. We aim to work in solidarity with local leaders and related groups to document the local use of natural resources for health and wellness and prepare community-legible resources to educate stakeholders on relevant health-related rights.
Past Projects
Young Women's Circle of Puerto Viejo
The "Circulo de Mujeres Jóvenes," or Young Women's Circle, is a collaboration with OM at Cashew Hill that strives to create trust, responsibility and a sense of community amongst the girls of Caribe Sur through sharing in monthly local art and culture events and projects. The activities are offered free of charge to participants thanks to donations made to a weekly CommUNITY Karma yoga class and the goodwill of collaborators in the community.