The RET Costa Rica has carried out a series of workshops on life skills, mainly aimed at young people from Secondary Schools in the province of Heredia, including colleges such as the Aurora High School, Samuel Saenz High School and Heredia High School. The workshops were attended by around 125 young refugees, immigrants and Costa Ricans between the ages of 13 and 18.

During the workshops, one of the themes was “Peace Education” which includes other equally important subjects such as: intercultural education, assertive communication, peace culture, and conflict management. In this context, questions such as “who is a refugee? how many refugees are there in Costa Rica?” were addressed to raise awareness among the participants and emphasize the importance of non-discrimination against this population.

The workshops focused on a series of dynamic and interactive activities in order to generate collective learning among young people and give them the tools to strengthen the skills they need to better cope with everyday challenges while promoting the integration of young people from different nationalities and cultures within Costa Rican society.

In the coming months, workshops on the topics mentioned above will be carried out with girls, boys, parents and teachers. Besides, “life project workshops” will be held to give the refugee population the opportunity to discover both their personal goals as well as their diverse study and working opportunities for their integration into Costa Rican society.