Last year, in the highland community of Pasaq, Guatemala, second-grade teacher Andrés Choc noticed a remarkable student with a keen interest and ability in reading. After being impressed by the student’s enthusiasm and skill, Andrés asked the student where he had learned to read so well. The student replied he had spent the school break participating in Adventures in Reading, a literacy program at his local library created by Child Aid.

This is how Andrés’ interest in Child Aid began. Soon after, he attended a Child Aid teacher training in Pasaq and borrowed books from their library to bring home to his own children in the neighboring community of Xojolá, where there is no library. Seeing the effects of the literacy programs in Pasaq and the response from his own children, Andrés became determined to bring the same resources to his community. He arranged meetings with local and school leaders and finally presented Child Aid with a formal request. (For more details on the project see previous blog posting.)

Since August, a volunteer librarian from the community has attended various Child Aid trainings, visited the library in Pasaq and is preparing to lead literacy programs for the community’s new library. Also, with support from the mayor, community members have renovated a storage room for the children’s reading room. At our U.S. office in Portland, we have been working hard to raise funds to open the library and begin our literacy program in January.

We were thrilled to see these concrete achievements in the performance of students who participate in Child Aid’s literacy programs, and this great example of how our programs are expanding to new communities. And like Andrés, we want to bring the opportunity of literacy to his home of Xojolá. Please donate here. Your contribution to this project will help to create readers like the exceptional student that motivated Andrés to bring a library to Xojolá.