Houses of Joy
Every year up to 20,000 Ngäbe-Buglé people cross the barely noticeable border seeking more favorable working conditions. Anticipating the coffee harvest season, they travel in groups of families to Costa Rica from Panamá, and stay from September through March.
Historically they have been semi-nomads throughout their ancestral land in between the two countries’ border created only 80 years ago, in 1941. Transit is also facilitated by the absence of formal military presence and friendly relations between the two countries.
The Ngäbe-Buglé peoples are amongst the most vulnerable populations. It was until recently, with support of the UNHCR, that both of the state institutions have started campaigns to provide identification documents as they were at risk of statelessness. A significant number of them were not registered in either country, which created a host of problems in terms of access to education, healthcare and adult employment. Women would give birth in their houses without medical attention out of mistrust of non-indigenous institutions, and the fear of being deported or their children taken away if they went to the hospital without an ID.
According to UNDP the percentage of indigenous peoples’ households lacking at least one basic need is 70,1% versus a 24,6% of the national percentage. This is a consequence of persistent discriminatory, structural and historical processes that started more than 500 years ago. Colonization, racism and systemic dispossession of their territories gravely affected their relation to their land with immense negative consequences to their ways of existing and well being until today.
About 85% of the Ngäbe-Buglé live under conditions of extreme poverty that creates ripples of marginalization, which often times lead to difficult measures. This is manifested in parents having no choice but to take their children with them to help pick the coffee beans, women carrying their babies while working at risk of hazardous pesticides and inclement weather, leaving their children unattended in closed dwellings or leaving 5-year-old girls at home alone to take care of babies and toddlers. These are examples of extreme measures as a response to survival and the need to provide for their families.
Furthermore, different cultural practices in different settings affect children’s health. For example, Ngäbe-Buglé people keep a fire going throughout the day to cook or to keep mosquitoes, bugs and other animals away. The fumes of the fire, combined with cooking oil, serve to thicken and to build impermeability for water resistance to their roofs, which in their tradition are made of organic materials. However, while working in Costa Rica, they are provided with housing made of different materials. Naturally, the Ngäbe-Buglé carry on with their regular practices while in their temporary houses. As a result kids suffer from respiratory illnesses, allergies, burns, lack of play and developmental stimulation.
A great motivation to implement corporate social responsibility practices came as a result of the uproar caused by the notice by the US Department of Labor that children were at risk of labor in coffee farms, especially in medium and large farms where the familiar relationship between indigenous families and employer’s families is lost. Investors and buyers threatening to rescind purchase agreements pushed a significant change.
Together UNICEF, the government of Costa Rica, local government, coffee farmers and civil society came together to improve these children’s quality of living, with the help of Dr. Ortiz Rosés, “the local treasure,” who for over 30 years has served as bridge between cultures working towards a more humane treatment of the Ngäbe-Buglé children. The Houses of Joy / “Casas de la Alegría” / Jamigara judö jüe) offer a space of public care and social protection services partly provided by the coffee farmers in an effort to prevent child labor and to provide better conditions for their workers.
As a result coffee farmers agreed to provide spaces within their farms and take care of utilities and other expenses such as transportation to the care centers when needed, while the state subsidizes the payment of the caretakers and food, holding a minimum of 15 children per House of Joy. So far, there are 24 of these centers around different coffee growing regions in Costa Rica benefiting at least 774 kids and reaching about 25.8% of the approximately 3,000 children who arrived in Costa Rica in 2019.
The Houses of Joy differ from one another depending on the coffee farm location and, as previously mentioned, the space provided depends on the coffee farmers and their cooperatives. At times the centers are well equipped, often modified community centers, brand new buildings for this specific purpose, or they may be renovated barracks or adapted storage places awaiting improvement with international cooperation or private funds. In the words of Dr. Ortiz “it has been creating a domino effect, as the indigenous peoples move from remote farms to farms near the Central Valley –which includes the surrounding area of the capital city- and request Casas de la Alegría” and so other farms have been replicating the model with subsidies from the state or privately with funds provided by the coffee farm owners.
Even though the model is constantly evolving according to needs and budgets, Houses of Joy have been successful on several different levels in terms of: i. prevention of child labour and exposure of children to hazardous conditions ii. providing childcare services for what the state calls “trans-border migrants” in a coordinated effort to implement the principles of non-discrimination and the best interest of the child, consequently allowing Nicaraguan children to benefit from the centers as well, when exposed to the same conditions iii. as an example of successful political will in coordination with UNICEF, local governments, public institutions, civil society and private sector iv. assuring food security and alleviating malnourishment experienced by these children v. as a culturally appropriate intercultural approach on their nutrition and in providing caretakers from their own culture; vi. facilitating a better environment for women’s economical empowerment and mental health vii. providing early childhood development and socialization through play viii. as an example of bilateral collaboration between Costa Rican and the Panamanian states and international cooperation and x. facilitating primary health care services, vaccination and deworming campaigns.
According to the coordinator of the project, Emmanuel Gómez Rojas, this alliance has greatly impacted the children’s health, with culturally appropriate nutrition, early informal care and education, as well as adequate protection and security. This model has brought benefit to the Ngäbe-Buglé girls and boys from infancy to 12 years old, and represents efforts to provide care centers with sensitivity to their culture and traditions.
This multidimensional coordination can serve as model for other companies and industries to emulate, in particular the agricultural sector that presents degrees of similarity to this situation. It serves to promote principle of the best interests of the child, as result of seeking harmony with human rights obligations and basic human dignity. Houses of Joy are the result of great efforts of compassion by organized groups of people coming together to facilitate a dignified and happier existence for the Ngäbe-Buglé children.