U.S. Supports Day Care Centers for Refugees in Costa Rica
The United States has provided about us$13,000 in financial support for the start-up of several day care centers in Costa Rica that give children of refugee families a safe place to stay while their parents work.

With financial support from a U.S. State Department program called the Ambassadors' Fund for Refugees, the facilities in San José offer both child care and job opportunities for parents.

The day care centers provide an English "learning station" and computer training for the refugee families, about 90 percent of whom are from Colombia, said Andy Prater, a human rights and labor officer for the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. But refugee children from other countries also are welcomed at the day care facilities, he emphasized.

The Ambassadors' Fund, begun in 2000, derives from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and is designed to provide ambassadors at U.S. embassies "the means to respond quickly to critical, low-cost gaps in refugee assistance and protection."

Two day-care centers now are operational in the San José area, and the hope is to open a third center in the same region "very soon," said Prater.

The first center was inaugurated May 16, the U.S. Embassy said. The centers are located in those areas of San José where there are high concentrations of refugees.

Prater said day care providers at the Costa Rican centers are carefully tested and evaluated to determine their suitability to care for children. Some of the day care providers are themselves refugees, said Prater.

The United States sees the centers becoming self-funding following the initial us$13,000 "start-up" investment in the program. No additional U.S. financial support should be necessary to keep the program running, Prater said, adding that a small fee is charged the refugee families, most of whom are poor, for the day care service and training.

The U.S. role in the centers, Prater said, has more to do with funding and "overseeing that the money is being spent properly," not in creating the rules for how the facilities are run.

Prater said administration and day-to-day operation of the centers is run by a San José-based group called the Asociación de Consultores y Asesores Internacionales (ACAI). The ACAI serves as the "implementing partner" for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in operating the day care centers.