• Digital toolkit includes an illustrated story, a reading guide, informative capsules and an infographic.

• The “Peace has many forms” initiative will reach 3,727 educational centers serving girls and boys in Early Childhood.

• Easily accessible and downloadable resources will benefit 128,086 girls and boys in the Pre-School Education level of the MEP, between four and six years old throughout the country.

An illustrated story, a reading guide, informative capsules and an infographic are part of the educational resources of the digital toolbox that FIFCO, the Ministry of Public Education (MEP in Spanish), the PANIAMOR Foundation and the CEN-CINAI National Directorate developed, with the aim of strengthening violence prevention from Early Childhood.

These new resources are part of the initiative called: Peace has many forms and will support 128,086 girls and boys to talk with their teachers and families about promoting a culture of peace.

The story El camino hacia la paz es un Tesoro (The Path to Peace is a Treasure), written by Elizabeth Jiménez Núñez and illustrated by artist María Zúñiga Mena, tells how Lala, a character who attends the children’s center, learns to understand and communicate her emotions in order to overcome a series of difficulties in a peaceful way, one day when many things go wrong.

Girls and boys, along with their families and more than 9,603 staff members who serve Early Childhood in the country, will be motivated to hold conversations about the culture of peace, through the digital toolbox they will have in the 3,727 educational centers with early childhood students in the country.

“Public-private initiatives like this are an example of collaborative work to contribute to benefit the quality of Costa Rican education. From the Ministry of Public Education we will continue to promote, through the Education Route, the management of timely collaborations, whether national or international, that allow a greater impact on the student community,” said the Minister of Education, Anna Katharina Müller.

For her part, Guiselle Alpízar Elizondo, Director of Curriculum Development of the MEP, referred to the contribution of this initiative and the importance of promoting safe, democratic and egalitarian environments that allow healthy coexistence and learning of our children who are agents of change.

To produce the digital toolbox, since the beginning of 2023, the Department of Early Childhood Education and the Directorate of Student Life of the MEP, the Social Strategy area of FIFCO, the Citizen Childhood Program of the PANIAMOR Foundation and the National Directorate of CEN-CINAI worked collaboratively. Writer Elizabeth Jiménez Núñez and illustrator María Zúñiga Mena, through their art, create stories to reflect on peace.

“The best way to prevent violence is to work from early childhood on the promotion of a culture of peace, which involves strengthening the ability to recognize and manage our own emotions, recognize and respect other people who also feel and think like us, in the context of experiences of respectful interaction and intergenerational dialogue,” said Oscar Valverde, executive director of the PANIAMOR Foundation.

As a product of the alliance, a mural was also created with the participation of artist Karina Calderón, the children of the Roberto Cantillano Kindergarten, in Ipís de Goicoechea, and the collaborators of FIFCO’s volunteer program Elegí Ayudar (I Chose to Help).

With its participation in the initiative “Peace has many forms”, the company contributes to the Cultural Change Strategy Childhood at the Center for the promotion of the principles of equality, human rights, peace and respectful upbringing from early childhood.

 “At FIFCO we are working from Expansion Sustainability. Strategic alliances such as this one reinforce our conscious citizenship initiative, strengthening solidarity and contributing to a culture of peace”, explains María Pía Robles, FIFCO’s Corporate Relations Director.

These actions are aligned with FIFCO’s Expanding Sustainability vision, which seeks innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges through creativity, systemic thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration and continuous learning to develop comprehensive and sustainable approaches.