Feel Good Friday - Kids Saving the Rainforest

Hola! I'm back from Costa Rica and I have another great organization from the country to profile on this Feel Good Friday.

Kids Saving the Rainforest (KSTR) was founded in 1999 by two 9 year old girls who were living in Costa Rica and wanted to save the disappearing trees in the rainforest and the squirrel monkeys (aka Titi monkeys) that live there.

As explained on the website, "The Mission of Kids Saving the Rainforest is to protect the diverse wildlife of Costa Rica's Pacific Coast by rehabilitating wildlife, conducting original scientific research, training volunteers, and promoting conservation."

Their curent projects include a wildlife rescue center, where two wildlife biologists help rehabilitate wounded, sick and abandoned animals. Their release rate for healthy animals is 55%, well above the 33% norm. Animals that are unable to be released are kept in the Wildlife Sanctuary, which will eventually have an education center to teach children about the rainforests.

Squirrel monkey in Manuel
Antonio National Park

Other programs include building monkey bridges to help the monkeys move about the rainforest without being electrocuted by high voltage wires or hit by cars, and Save the Sloths, an effort to release orphaned sloths back into the wild with GPS collars to track them and learn more about sloth conservation.

You can watch this 9:27 minute video of KSTR President, Jennifer Rice, explaining the origin story and growth of the organization, check out the 2:28 minute video that gives you a quick overview or go to the KSTR YouTube channel to watch as many videos of sloths and monkeys as you like.

If you like what you see you can support Kids Saving the Rainforest by visiting, volunteering or sponsoring a monkey bridge. I also encourage you to share their story on social media by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @KSTRCR. Do it for the sloths! Or the monkeys! Or the kids!

Feel Good Friday - La Tortuga Feliz

Today Feel Good Friday is going to Costa Rica for a little Sentries Bien Viernes!

La Tortuga Feliz (the happy turtle) is a volunteer-run organization in Costa Rica focused on turtle conservation. Poaching, fishing nets and pollution have taken their toll on the turtle population and La Tortuga Feliz (LTF) has been working to reverse that decline since 2006.

Volunteers work with people in the local community to patrol the beaches looking for eggs before the poachers find them. As explained in more detail on their website, "These local inhabitants guard/patrol the beach (Caribbean coast of Costa Rica) together with volunteers, collect the turtle eggs and bring these eggs to a hatchery which is manned by volunteers on a 24 hours basis. Volunteers also participate in the care for and study of recuperating adult turtles in the turtle reduce and rehabilitation centre."

This turtle conservation work provides income for the locals, which the people at LTF hope will take away the necessity for locals to poach the turtles and their eggs. Many of the people working for LTF are former poachers who are happy to earn money saving, rather than killing the turtles.

Volunteers pay $35/day for room and board, which seems like a pretty sweet deal. While you're spending time learning about, and saving turtles, you can also take Spanish lessons and bond with volunteers from around the world! Not convinced yet? Check out the videos on their home page and view their photo gallery, which both give you a great idea of the work being done.

If you can't book your plane tickets to Costa Rica just yet, you can follow the work of La Tortuga Feliz by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @latortugafeliz1.