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Published Tuesday, February 23, 2021
U.S. and U.N. donate sanitizing
supplies valued at $117K-plus
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
On Monday, the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, in alliance with the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF, donated sanitizing supplies valued at $1,179,913, to be distributed to 642 schools in Costa Rica.
“As part of the permanent friendship between our two countries, the United States stands by Costa Rica's side as we face this pandemic together,” Gloria Berbena, US Embassy Chargé d'Affaires said. “With the donation of this hand sanitizing kit, together with the tremendous efforts of the Ministry of Public Education, we can be sure that Costa Rican students and teachers have the resources they need to practice hygiene in classrooms and limit the spread of covid-19."
According to the Ministry of Education, the schools were chosen because they are located in the areas with the highest spread rate of covid-19.
The donation included 37,957 gallons of liquid sanitizer; 30,375 gallons of liquid soap; 15,497 gallons of alcohol gel; 8,529 digital thermometers; and 5,000 alcohol gel dispensers.
Among the 642 schools, there are 205 schools for special skills students, 119 for students in refugee status, 16 schools in indigenous zones and 73 schools with high levels of student exclusion.
“We cannot allow another year to threaten children's ability to read, write or lose the skills they need to get ahead in the 21st-century economy,” Patricia Portela of UNICEF said.
The USAID and UNICEF, together with the Ministry of Education, are sponsoring an advertising campaign called "Yo Me Cuido" or "I take care of myself" in the English language, which has been advertised in Spanish media since Jan. 8. Advertisements are for promoting the sanitary guidelines in schools.
This is the second-largest donation made by UNICEF to Costa Rican students this month.
Last week, the organization donated 77 laptops, valued at $45,500, to high school students in the northern zone of the country, to motivate them to finish their studies.
The students in high schools in the cantons of Los Chiles, San Carlos, Guatuso and Upala, were selected from a list of 86,000.
“The organization will support Costa Rica in its efforts to empower children, adolescents and youth to have the capacities and skills for life, with access to quality education that allows them to enter the labor market of the future, contribute with their ideas, their leadership and their optimism towards the consolidation of an inclusive, equitable and supportive country,” Portela said.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, at the beginning of the pandemic, they registered 215,000 students living in poverty without internet access in their homes.
Currently, through the “Connected Homes” program, a bonus is given on the purchase price of internet service at a speed of 5 Mbps and a laptop is delivered to students attending public schools.
The northern zone is one of the regions of the country that presents one of the slowest lags in digital connectivity, according to the ministry. Lack of internet access has impacted attendance in 39 schools across that region, according to the ministry.
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