Omar Dengo Foundation Celebrates 20 Years

The Omar Dengo Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes educational innovation and technology use in schools, celebrated its 20th birthday this week by launching its new Innova@ Institute, designed to disseminate information and allow educators to share ideas.

The institute will offer courses on digital technology in education, as well as teacher training; provide consultations for governments or international organizations seeking to develop local projects; implement research projects on the social impact of technology in schools; offer specialized teacher training and other initiatives; and design programs for any organization seeking to improve productivity through technology, according to the foundation’s Web site, www.fod.ad.cr.

President Oscar Arias applauded the initiative at the institute’s inauguration Tuesday and called technological innovation in education among the “more efficient catalysts of the process of decreasing inequalities.

“The uncontrolled breaches among human beings are ethically indefensible,” Arias said. “It’s our obligation to… eliminate the immense injustices we’ve dragged with us through time.”

The Omar Dengo Foundation’s projects have benefited more than 1.5 million Costa Ricans, from students and teachers to senior citizens, according to the organization.

Named after a renowned Costa Rican educator, the foundation has helped many schools and educators to not only obtain access to new technologies by installing computer labs in schools and other efforts, but also to take advantage of the possibilities they offer.