S.I.F.E. International
This is the second time that representatives of this group from S.I.F.E. International have been to visit and volunteer here in El Remate (see here and here). Pictured above are (in front) Gabriella de la Bastide from here in the village, who did an excellent job of translating for the week, (back left to right) Cameron Hopes, Scott Manley, Leslie Frye, Joe Ervin, and Jeffrie Shipley.
S.I.F.E. (Students in Free Enterprise) are a non-profit organization educating people on concepts like market economics, entrepreneurship, and business ethics through educational outreach projects.
Tourism is not only the main source of employment in this area, but is also seen to be the only way we are going to be able to slow down the rampant destruction of the rainforest known as the “earth’s second lung”. Most of our local hotels and restaurants are small and locally owned, so don’t have a budget for advertising and no skills to build a website.
This year the SIFE group decided to focus on improving tourism to El Remate by setting up and training the business people to use a “village blog”( that all local businesses can post to) and individual blogs for each of the business owners.
The group held an informational seminar that was well-attended by hotel and restaurant owners, during which they used the construction of a general El Remate blog to teach how easy it is to set up and post to a Blogspot Blog. They then worked one-on-one with each interested business owner to teach them how to set up and manage their own personal blog.
The villagers were so grateful to the SIFE group for what they feel they have gained from this journey, that Bruno (owner of Bruno’s Place) had a special Ceiba Plaque made to present to them on their last night, as a “recuerdo” of their time in the village.
We invite you to VISIT EL REMATE, and then drop by to see each of our beautiful, clean, service-oriented establishments: