In a pleasant conversation with the reporter team of The Costa Rica News, Yorgina Ureña, founder of the Jaco Impact project, confesses all the details of the 4th anniversary of this organization.
When we stop to think about projects as structured and successful as Jaco Impact, it is difficult for us to believe that much of their success comes from the neighborhood organization of the inhabitants of Jaco, a coastal town located in Costa Rica.
The inhabitants of this small town have always been willing to collaborate. They have adopted Ureña as their own, although in reality Yorgina Ureña, Yor as she is affectionately known by the locals, founder of this project was not originally born in this area.
Starting to thread this conversation is not an easy task, while resting in Yor’s busy schedule, she allowed us to know more about the organization that has awakened and changed the way of thinking of many of the inhabitants of Jaco who today dream of turning this area into an example not only for the country but for the whole world to take them as a reference in terms of self-management and organization.
We began to get down to business and Yor tells us that she has just finished a very beautiful work that fills her with great joy such is, the restoration of “Calle Bohío”, done along with 25 volunteers who lent their efforts to restore the shine to this imposing place.
An anniversary that more than a celebration is a great learning
We continue our conversation and it is there that Jaco Impact could be defined as a child for its founder, Yorgina Ureña, because it is only necessary to talk about this project with her to see how her look of happiness lights up.
On this occasion, the Jaco Impact family celebrates 4 years of its foundation and although for obvious reasons and derived from the pandemic caused by Covid-19, it cannot be celebrated with a big party as would be the ideal. Important initiatives continue to be created that in one way or another fill the place of the party.
Initiatives with a purpose
That is why for Ureña, celebrating this anniversary, has left her a great growth and not only in the professional area but beyond that in the personal field. Initiatives such as inclusive surfing to what he defines as the most gratifying of this stage in which the development of his project is located.
Well, specifically for the practice of this discipline, disabled people are included in the best way. Many of them never thought of being able to be in the sea and less to surf. Thanks to this type of organization, initiatives of this type are becoming a reality.
Costa Rican beaches have become a sea of opportunities
Using our beaches and “getting the juice” from all the knowledge that Yor has as a professional surfer. But not only this practice is carried out, since different activities have been carried out in favor of their conservation, such as deep cleanings that have led in many cases to give life to the ecosystem again.
From this initiative and the waste obtained, truly interesting objects came out through recycling, including a surfboard made from cigarette butts and another surfboard made with approximately 2,500 plastic caps. These and other objects are marketed in an entrepreneur shop also belonging to Jaco Impact where they can get an excellent souvenir of the next visit to Jaco.
Jaco Impact came to teach how to work as a team
The most difficult thing for many communities is to reach an agreement in order to solve the problems that afflict them as a whole. But thanks to the work that Yor has been doing in the Jaco community, this action is part of the past. Today the community knows that teamwork is the way.
