The Sears Family
giveDIGNITY Founders Seth and Andrea Sears were both raised in middle-class families in Kansas City. While participating in a suburban church plant, they were given the book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, by Ron Sider, and began to feel conflicted about their own pursuit of the “American Dream” while much of the world struggles daily with hunger, poor sanitation, lack of access to clean water and quality education, and is subjected to violence and oppression. Wrestling with these issues of economic resource disparity led them to move to Costa Rica in 2009 with their children (Annabel, Alden, and Jude) to work in La Carpio, a marginalized community on the outskirts of San José, Costa Rica.
During their first few years of working in the community, they saw many things that disturbed them about the missions endeavor as it relates to helping the poor. They saw a lot of handouts being given and dependencies being created. They saw an assumption on the part of many that those living in the community didn’t really have any resources or skills to contribute to fix their own problems. They saw superficial attempts to help that didn’t make a difference in transforming lives in the long run, as people always needed ANOTHER free pair of shoes or soccer ball later. And worst of all, they saw people being trained to feel “less than” and helpless, stripped of the dignity endowed to them by God as His image bearers, as they willingly participated in patron/receiver relationships instead of mutual relationships.
With that in mind, Seth and Andrea started a new ministry, giveDIGNITY, which seeks to serve the poor in strategic ways that empower them to break the cycle of poverty through long-term development instead of short-term aid.
During their first few years of working in the community, they saw many things that disturbed them about the missions endeavor as it relates to helping the poor. They saw a lot of handouts being given and dependencies being created. They saw an assumption on the part of many that those living in the community didn’t really have any resources or skills to contribute to fix their own problems. They saw superficial attempts to help that didn’t make a difference in transforming lives in the long run, as people always needed ANOTHER free pair of shoes or soccer ball later. And worst of all, they saw people being trained to feel “less than” and helpless, stripped of the dignity endowed to them by God as His image bearers, as they willingly participated in patron/receiver relationships instead of mutual relationships.
With that in mind, Seth and Andrea started a new ministry, giveDIGNITY, which seeks to serve the poor in strategic ways that empower them to break the cycle of poverty through long-term development instead of short-term aid.
Jeaneth Rayo Jimenez
Jeaneth was a graduate of our first Jobs for Life class in 2013. During the course, she discovered that serving others is something that really energizes her. She determined to use this gift vocationally, and began volunteering with giveDIGNITY whenever she could, offering to help with anything we needed. She did such a great job over the first few months that we hired her on as a part-time employee. She’s now been with us for 6 years, helping provide support for the sponsorship program and anything else we need. She is a resident of La Carpio and provides invaluable cultural insight and intelligence that help us to make our initiatives more effective. She is married to Mario and has three boys: Joshua, Oliver and Caled.
Adriana Guerrero Tapia
Adriana is both our neighbor in La Carpio and a team member that provides cooking and cleaning services at the ministry. She is a faithful servant, working hard in mostly “invisible” roles to support the ministry’s effectiveness. She is also a considerate friend and neighbor, looking out for people who may try to break in, deface, or otherwise pose a threat to the ministry, and shooing Andrea out when it’s too dusty for her to help with cleaning (asthma!). She is married to Elmer and has two daughters: Dayana and Reychel. She is also raising her niece, Ariana. Her daughter Dayana is one of our sponsored students since the beginning of the program, and will graduate this year.
Federico Ramirez
Federico Ramirez is a new member of our team in 2020. He brings both corporate business and pastoring experience to our team, as well as a proven passion for working with the poor in some of San José's other marginalized communities. He is currently teaching a course about starting your own small business, and also collaborating with us on how to do a better job of reaching people spiritually. He has lots of connections and lots of great ideas, and we're excited to add him to our team! He is married to Lorena and has two sons, Andres and Ruben.
Volunteers
The giveDIGNITY team also relies on the help of dozens of volunteers who fill roles such as tutors, ESL and Jobs for Life teachers, library attendants, bible study leaders, guest speakers at mothers workshops, big brothers, child care during classes and events, and community organizers. We believe in mobilizing the people and resources within the community to solve its problems, and prefer to use more local volunteers than outsiders. Without investment by those within the community, we would quickly go astray and not be able to accomplish nearly as much as we can by their sides.
