In this Daily: Abriendo Mentes Celebrates 10 Years
Abriendo Mentes is a local nonprofit specializing in education and community development. They have recently celebrated their 10 Year anniversary. It is certainly powerful to see how much the organization has grown in that time. A single hour of English language tutoring is where it all started. Three students and an instructor operated out of the back of a restaurant. How times have changed!
Now, the group operates in both Potrero and Brasilito. They have also expanded to offer programming targeted towards youth, adults, women, and community engagement.
About the Program
The program's name means "Opening Minds." This is a sentiment that we at Las Catalinas similarly embrace in our own way. Meradith Leebrick and Drew Ragland founded the program in 2009. After living in Potrero for several years, a neighbor asked if they could begin offering some English classes for his daughter and her cousins.
What began as very informal tutoring sessions with no supplies, no resources, and no physical classroom space, grew steadily. Today it is a full-fledged after school program for dozens of local children and also adults.
From the website:
"We have delivered thousands of hours of classes and community development programs, more than 200 volunteers have joined our team and supported our work, and we have consistently met our ambitious fundraising goals. However, the communities where we work still face great challenges, and we continually strive to enhance our program offerings for the local population and future generations."
Abriendo Mentes is one of the organizations supported through the Guanacaste Community Fund. If you’d like to get involved, please click this link to contribute to their current fundraiser.
Great job to all involved in making the program the success it has been for the past ten years. Here's to ten more great years!