Our Education Project

The Lady Gladys education centre is situated in one of the poorest areas of San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica in Central America.

The area is one of the communities with most problems associated with poverty, such things as prostitution, drug addiction, violence, abuse within families and the afflictions that go with lack of education, information and culture.

The Lady Gladys Education Centre

The Lady Gladys Education centre, apart from giving education to the children is going to be an example to the whole community in such that it will offer, at an absolute minimum cost (and with your help no cost at all) a means of education and culture to the children as well as the rest of the community.

Initiatives:-

The Education Centre will be concentrated in the two programs as defined below...

Program 1

The School currently consists of the following (each classroom is capable of holding 25 children)

Classroom of Pre Kindergarten (age 4 to 5 years)
Classroom of Kindergarten (age 5 to 6 years)
Classroom of 1st Grade (age 6 years to 7 years)

Education services offered:-

Teachers of high quality
Excellent programs of the basics of reading, writing and mathematics
A service of individual attention where necessary to the students
Strong emphasis in English
Computer classes
Medical services and the service of Physcologists and Sociologists
To supply food of good nutritional value (many children will not have eaten when they arrive at the school)

Program 2 - The Social Plan

This consists of giving classes to children that are already in the Public School System but require additional education support for reasons of their living conditions and lack of educational facilities in the public schools. There is also individual tutoring available.

In all the schools in Costa Rica the education day is split into two parts each day (only an average of 4 hours per day), so children go to school in the morning on one day and the next day in the afternoon.

Therefore, the Lady Gladys Education Centre can support the children that go to the school in the morning by giving classes in the afternoon and vice versa.

Education services offered

Teachers of high quality
Excellent programs of the basics of reading, writing and mathematics
A service of individual attention where necessary to the students
Strong emphasis in English
Computer classes
Medical services and the service of a Physcologist
To supply food of good nutritional value (many children will not have eaten when they arrive at the school)
A study room/library as many families live in only one room so there is no where for them to study in the family home

Selection of the Children

The children (and the parents), yes we do mean the parents, as a very important aspect of the work of the Foundation is to educate the parents about the importance of their children obtaining a good education.

In many cases, these parents are illiterate and have no understanding of the value of education. Therefore it is essential that the children selected have parents who will motivate the children to attend school each day and also do their homework

The children for both these programs will be selected by means of a Social Economic study within a area of 2 miles of the school. This will be conducted in two forms:-

(a) Contacting all the local schools and talking to the Director to obtain a list of the children that are in risk of leaving the school for reasons of economy or other risk factors

(b) A house to house survey in the poorest areas so that we can obtain a list of all the children that meet the requirements for entrance into the Lady Gladys Education Centre which are in accordance with our mission/vision which is to give children that normally are without hope of receiving an education to receive an excellent education.

There are various ways that you can help us, you could GET INVOLVED or there are other ways you can HELP US. Naturally we welcome donations as well.