Projects of the Meeting

Peace and Social Concerns Committee

The mission of the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of the Monteverde Friends Meeting is “to provide education, advocacy, and direct services related to peace and social concerns, both at the local and global levels.” [approved 4 August, 2018; included in the Discipline approved 13 June 2021].

Activities of the Committee have included:

  • Research and education to develop members’ understanding of social and peace-related issues.
  • Fundraising to support social and peace-related causes (among members, in the broader community, on social media, and internationally).
  • Visits to other communities to offer donations or volunteer time, show solidarity, and develop understanding.
  • Collaboration with the Monteverde Friends School and interested teachers, students, and families to coordinate joint activities, learning, and fundraising.
  • Alliance-building with other organizations with related concerns and activities.
  • Stewardship of Meeting funds donated toward the Peace and Social Concerns Committee’s causes.

For over a decade, the Committee has focused on the concerns of migrants who are transiting through Costa Rica or making a new life here. Since 2022, we have collaborated with grassroots groups in Los Chiles who provide meals and temporary shelter for migrants in transit. We have led fundraising efforts, donation drives, and solidarity trips of Monteverde Friends School students and adults offering volunteer assistance. 

In 2025, our community invited six families – originally from Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan – who had been expelled from the United States to settle with us temporarily in Monteverde and in Irigaray, Costa Rica. Under the name Proyecto Bienvenidos, local residents stepped forward with offers of housing, food, access to legal advice and other services, and community support to ensure these families’ stability and dignity. 

Anyone is invited to attend Committee meetings, which are held on an as-needed basis and depending on topics and projects of interest.  To learn more, please contact Jennie Mollica, jennie.mollica@gmail.com.

Members of the Monteverde Friends Meeting, students from the Monteverde Friends School, residents of Los Chiles, and visiting migrants worked together to paint and renovate a temporary shelter space in Los Chiles. (November 2023)
Monteverde Friends Meeting members and Monteverde Friends School students prepared food to serve to migrants transiting through Los Chiles. (November 2023)