Holding and Growing a Different Future for Childhood
Wild Child Nosara is an initiative of Earth Tributes
Wild Child Playgarden & Wildschooling is the flagship educational initiative of Earth Tributes, a European nonprofit headquartered in Belgium, with a registered Costa Rican branch, Asociación Earth Tributes, and US fiscal sponsorship enabling tax-deductible giving from American donors.
Earth Tributes grew from nonprofit work begun in 2008, promoting access to education and health, raising awareness, informing, and launching campaigns advancing human rights. Today, its work brings together regenerative education, ecological stewardship, cultural exchange, and social justice.
At the heart of our work is a commitment to building bridges:
Between local and international communities.
Between children from different economic and cultural backgrounds.
Between diverse ways of knowing.
Between education and meaningful participation in the world.
Between visionary ideas and the structures that allow them to take root.
We are strengthened through our partnership with Golestan Colab, whose work in culturally responsive education is helping us deepen educator training and community-rooted learning. We are also in dialogue with organizations in the United States about bringing rites of passage, leadership development, and additional educator training to Costa Rica.
Our Work in Costa Rica
Wild Child Nosara is one living expression of this wider mission.
In Nosara—a place of extraordinary natural beauty and profound economic inequality—we are working to create a year-round, bilingual, nature-rooted learning community where local and international families can meet, learn from one another, and experience a genuine sense of belonging.
Through Earth Tributes, we are working to:
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Keep Wild Child rooted, reliable, and open throughout the year.
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Expand access for Costa Rican children through scholarships and community partnerships.
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Create meaningful bridges between local and international families.
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Offer fair, sustainable employment and professional development for Costa Rican educators.
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Sponsor women pursuing training in holistic and regenerative education.
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Support ecological education, permaculture, food growing, and the restoration and protection of the land.
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Develop a community library and spaces where children, families, artists, and educators can gather and learn.
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Create transportation that connects children with Wild Child, local farms, intentional communities, cultural projects, and the wider living classroom of Costa Rica.
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Welcome visiting educators, artists, volunteers, and partner organizations into reciprocal relationships with the local community.
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Develop educational projects that respond to real needs in Nosara and can eventually be shared with other communities.
FOUR YEARS, ONE QUESTION
For four years, Wild Child has served more than 500 children from Costa Rica and around the world. Families range across a wide economic spectrum. Throughout, we have been working to harmonize that spectrum. We are here to be part of the solution for how local and international communities coexist, integrate, and come together in Nosara. All while asking:
How do we widen access across different economic realities without sacrificing the quality of attention every child deserves?
We believe in small groups, personalized and rigorous academics, and opportunities for one-to-one guidance. We want educators to have time to sit beside a child, engage deeply with their work, and shine a light on their thinking, creativity, and self-expression. This level of attention is at the heart of our model—and it is costly to provide.
A Community-Supported Model
Earth Tributes/Wild Child has been supported primarily through tuition contributions from participating families. Through a community-supported model, families and partners contribute according to their capacity. Those able to give more help widen access without diminishing the quality of education anyone receives. But most of our income arrives within roughly four months of Nosara's high season, while our responsibilities continue all year.
This kind of international, holistic education isn't subsidized: unlike public schooling, its full cost falls entirely on families or on Wild Child itself.
Our challenge has been to keep student-teacher ratios low, stay open all year, award a significant number of scholarships, and value our educators as the heart of this work.
Why This Matters
Help Us Keep the Light on the Child
We are not trying to educate more children with less attention. We are creating the conditions in which every child can be fully seen, develop a strong academic foundation, discover their voice, and experience themselves as a capable contributor to their community and the living Earth.
When you support Earth Tributes, you help build bridges between people, places, generations, cultures, ways of knowing, and possibilities.
[Read Our Full Vision]
[Support Earth Tributes]
the Circle of Guardians
To sustain and grow this work with integrity, we are inviting a small number of individuals into a deeper role.
The Circle of Guardians is made up of people who feel called to:
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Protect the essence of what is being built
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Support its long-term development
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Help make it accessible to more children
This is not sponsorship.
It is stewardship.
Friends of Earth tributes
A community supporting childhood, connection, and nature-based learning.
We are opening a small, intentional circle of people
who feel called to support this work in an ongoing way.
Not just as donors but as part of the village holding it.
Your contribution helps us:
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Maintain small teacher-to-student ratios and personalized, rigorous academics.
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Offer scholarships to Costa Rican and international families across different economic realities.
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Welcome local Costa Rican children to join us during every public school break.
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Build a roster of dedicated mentors.
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Sustain and train our Costa Rican educators throughout the year.
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Develop youth leadership, Earth stewardship, and ocean stewardship programs.
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Bring children to local libraries and nurture a new generation of readers and storytellers.
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Deepen our work with Golestan Colab and bring Weaving Earth's Relational Education, rites of passage, and educator training to Costa Rica.
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Help educators and communities create their own locally rooted microschools.
The Regenerative Leadership Fund
Sustaining the adults who hold the model - protecting continuity, depth, and long-term impact.
The Community Access & Experience Fund
Supporting workshops, field trips, gatherings, and bursaries - where this work is most visible and felt.
The Educator Fund
Training and mentoring educators - allowing this model to ripple outward and create wider change.