Kristen Anderson, our program coordinator in Guatemala, recently emailed the office here in Portland about the community of Granados. Peace Corps volunteers are working there to set up a community library. Child Aid was able to assist them by donating books for the project. The really exciting part is this: a volunteer at the Granados library just contacted us to find out how the two librarians could attend a Child Aid Librarian Training. Obviously, books are a fundamental part of our programs. But real and lasting impact occurs not through book delivery alone, but when you provide training and technical support to librarians so they can establish book-lending programs and reading programs. These are the elements that really bring books to life for children and make them accessible to the entire community. It’d be great if this works out. If it does, the entire school (or schools) may end up with reading programs in their classrooms – all part of the process. We’ll see!
Blog