Today, a grand total of 50,737 children’s books arrived at Child Aid’s book warehouse, near Chimaltenango, Guatemala. And it wasn’t easy getting them there!

After shipping them down from the United States, we had to get them through customs in Guatemala, onto the semi-truck and up the steep western slopes of the Sierra Madre mountains. The semi made it all the way to the entrance to our bodega, but couldn’t get down the dirt road that leads through the coffee plantation to our storage facility. So our staff and volunteers had to transfer all 50,000 books into the back of a pick-up (it took several loads) to get them to the bodega.

After unloading all the books, the staff began the initial sorting process, breaking the books up by reading level and sorting them by fiction and nonfiction, textbooks, etc. Later, we will create packets of books according to each community’s needs and distribute them to dozens of villages throughout Guatemala.

Lack of children’s books is a major contributor to Guatemala’s high rates of illiteracy. Most indigenous children have never even put their hands on a book by the time they start school. And the vast majority of classrooms in rural Guatemala are empty of textbooks. We deliver these books to remote, neglected classrooms and libraries, then work closely with teachers and librarians to help them use the books in our Reading for Life literacy program.

Our deepest thanks go out to our partner, International Book Project, which donated these books to be used in conjunction with our literacy program in Guatemala. And thanks to all of our supporters – each and every one of you helped make this possible!