Case study: Child from Limón, Costa Rica

Moving to a new place is not easy for anyone, much less when you are young or when the new place is completely different from the one you are used to. Jesús, from the SOS Youth Facility in Sabanilla, Costa Rica, has gone through that difficult challenge.

Moving to San José
Moving to a new place is not easy for anyone, much less when you are young or when the new place is completely different from the one you are used to. Jesús, from the SOS Youth Facility in Sabanilla, Costa Rica, has gone through that difficult challenge.

Background
Jesús, 16, was born in Limón, the Costa Rican province on the Caribbean shore. He and some of his siblings (four boys and a girl in total) were admitted at one of the Salvation Army child-care facilities in Moín, Limon. When this Salvation Army center was passed over to SOS Children's Villages in 2003, it became an annex to the SOS Children's Village Limón, in the same province.

Limon is rather a rural city and not as developed as San Jose, so the most logical option for some of the youths growing up in Moín was to move to the capital city, to the SOS Youth Facility in Sabanilla. Here, the boys would have better education options close at hand, at the same time that they would live with other boys who are more or less the same age (there are still no youth facilities in Limón).

Moving out
The first time Jesús heard about moving out to San José was last year, when he was going to be interviewed and tested to be admitted at the SOS International College Santa Ana (one district of San José).

Later, he was posed the possibility to go live at the youth facility in Sabanilla. "At the beginning, I resisted moving to San José because that meant I would be sacrificing my family, my aunts, my friends. However, I also knew that many doors would open for me, that I would be making new friends and receiving an education," says soft-spoken Jesús with a grin.

Moving in
The first thing that struck Jesús was the climate. As he puts it, "The change in climate affected me a lot! Limón is very hot and humid, while Sabanilla is one of the coolest places in San José."

Now, five months later, Jesus says he feels calm. Just like everyone else, he's had personal problems and at school, but he feels much better now. "I've found the love and support from many people, from the youth facility director, the other boys, and from the people who work at the national and regional offices."

Whenever he finds time, he goes to Limón for the weekend.

"I am still not accustomed to the cold, though," he continues, "but I take a very thick blanket with me to bed, and that helps a lot."

SOS Children's Villages is convinced that maintaining ties to family members is crucial when it comes to a child's well-being and promoting his/her further development if the SOS child still has biological parents and/or close relatives and if there are positive emotional connections between the SOS child and his/her relatives. This is why we support SOS children in keeping in touch with their relatives.

SOS Children has been working in Costa Rica since 1975 caring for more than 250 children at children's villages based at Tres Ríos and Limón

You can support children like Jesus by becoming a child sponsor in Costa Rica.