Ligia Jiménez Zamora is a public defender on Costa Rica’s Supreme Court of Justice. She conducts extensive research and writes on gender, indigenous peoples, human rights, and intersectionality. Ligia previously spent six years supervising care for indigenous peoples. One of her advocacy initiatives involved securing donations for library books for children and adolescents in indigenous territories. Ligia holds a Doctorate in law.

IVLP Impact Award Project: A Youthful Adventure Towards Bribri Cultural Knowledge

The project generates writing and reading skills for 50 indigenous students of the Yorkin Rural High School. Through two creative writing workshops led by experts, those young learners will produce written works and illustrations of stories, tales, and ancestral poetry of the Bribri indigenous people. The participants’ final works will be exhibited at the Sulá Regional Directorate, of the Ministry of Education. Ligia hopes her project will motivate the students to continue their studies through to university. The project is also designed to overcome the challenges posed to higher education in this region due to economic aspects, remoteness, access, housing, and lack of scholarship possibilities.

In July, Ligia coordinated a two-day intensive workshop on painting, drawing and writing for 48 indigenous Bribri youth to express their cultural identity through creative works. In September, she returned to discuss compiling this work into a book and is now digitizing the hand-drawn and written materials for editing. Ligia received more pieces than expected from the students, which will be incorporated into the book. Once edited and published, the students will present the book to officials, peers, teachers and other educators at the regional directorate of the Ministry of Education.

“Education, cultural activities, and sports are engines of change in an inclusive society that respects differences.” – Ligia Jiménez Zamora

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Ligia participated in the IVLP Project Addressing the Needs of Underserved and At-Risk Youth organized by the U.S. Department of State and FHI 360, in partnership with Global Ties ABQ, Global Santa Fe, Cleveland Council on World Affairs, and Columbia Council for Internationals.

Ligia’s exchange experience led to the development of her project: “The IVLP experience allowed me to learn about other experiences in crime resolution and prevention, as well as [to] rethink how to encourage young people to create, feel, and dream of lifestyles that can improve [them] as individuals [and] as a society. [My IVLP Impact Award] project advocates civic participation and the construction of bridges between education and culture, generating leaders of change.”

“From the experience…[on] the IVLP exchange…I [learned] that raising awareness and training in [children and adolescents] generates possibilities for change, study, work, and above all, avoiding crime.” - Ligia Jiménez Zamora

U.S. Communities Visited

Washington, DC; Albuquerque, NM; Santa Fe, NM; Cleveland, OH; Columbia, SC

Country: Costa Rica

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