We’d like to give a warm welcome to the latest addition to our Tropical Adventures family — the CEN Daycare and Nutritional Centers! Volunteers Kelly and Aisha were are first guinea pigs to go in and work with these kids. And it was a total success! Many thanks to all involved, especially Laura Palomo, for developing and putting into place this new project.

We now have eleven CEN centers helping families and kids in the Talamanca region where we primarily work.   
We work primarily with the center in Puerto Viejo, but will support the others as much as possible.

At CEN, they care for kids between ages one to five. An instructor and cook
work with the kids teaching them how wash their hands, properly brush
their teeth, and how to sit at a table to eat. They also organize
recreational activities during the afternoon.

The main purpose of this program is to provide the kids, while their
mothers are working, with two balanced meals and two healthy snacks
daily. Once a Nutritional Center is built, the government provides a
limited amount of milk, fruits and meat. The Center is actually run in
cooperation with the local government and a board, made up of parents
whose children are in the program.

Our volunteers
concentrate on helping with breakfast in the morning, then they teach the kids things such as how to wash their hands and
brush their teeth. Then they lead the children in games until lunch
time. But watch out: these kids can get really messy! After lunch
everyone rests for a half-hour. In the afternoon, we create and leading fun activities
for the kids before they leave for the day. 

For more information about this project, please see this page on our website.