Library empowers Girls & Women in coastal Ecuador

Books, puzzles and fish – a volunteering experience in Don Juan

     After five weeks of living and working in Don Juan, a tiny fishing village in the Pacific, we are saying our goodbyes. It is 9am and our English class at Don Juan’s small school has started: We are standing outside on the dirt playground, playing the guitar and singing: “If you’re happy and you know it, say Hooray!” The kids in front of us shout “Hooray!” and put their hands up in the air enthusiastically. It is a precious moment – on our last day of volunteering in Don Juan they have finally got the gist of the game! Well, I guess that´s how foreign language, or any learning process for that matter, settles in, with time and patience. My husband Tom, a music and art teacher, and I, a journalist, chose to come to Don Juan and work with Fundación A mano manaba because of their approach to intercultural learning. We have not been disappointed.

      We stayed at the “Biblioteca”, opened it every day in the morning to welcome children from the village. The first days we were a little shy and felt uncertain: “Will we find a connection to the children? What difference can our help make? Are we actually helping and not just infiltrating?”

      But we were welcomed warmly by everyone in the village. We liked walking around Don Juan, because always people smiled at us, saying “!Buenos días!” or “!Buenas tardes!”. After some days at the library of A Mano Manaba we also felt comfortable with all the different activities that are offered here: We encouraged the kids to read – to read out aloud or to listen to us reading stories. The world of books is still a new one for many of these children. A world to discover – and it was a lot of fun to accompany them on their way.

      We also helped the children with their homework, played chess and puzzled with them. They love puzzles! The basic idea of the library is allowing a space so the children can have fun while learning. So, we tried to come up with creative ideas every day. We were a little shocked that homework often just consists of copying pages from school books, just writing down without thinking or understanding. Apparently as a result of that, many of the children struggle with creative tasks, for example with having own ideas of what to draw. So, we offered artistic activities and encouraged the children to try and learn new things. Sometimes it was hard to motivate them. And at first, you do not really see an impact. But then there are many good, surprising moments: For example, one day, one of the boys sat down quietly and started to draw a whale on his own. So, things do change!

      Another task to work on is the empowerment of girls and women in this region of Ecuador. A Mano Manaba aims to improve the conditions of life for girls and women. We wanted to participate in that. So, we played soccer with the girls on the beach and Tom offered photo workshops especially for girls. These workshops were a good way to pay attention to the way on how the girls perceive the village and their reality here. With their photos they could share their view on the world.

      During our five weeks in Don Juan we got the chance to learn and experience lots of new things. The people of the community are really nice, open and willing to share their knowledge. So, some fishers took us with them early in the morning for fishing, we helped to classify fish and our neighbors showed us how to cook typical food like Ceviche. That is the best thing about it – that it actually was an intercultural exchange. We learned from them, they learned from us!

      In our view the Library of A Mano Manaba is a good and important project – a project that definitely makes a change for the community. Why? Because it is a secure place with a positive learning atmosphere. Because there are many activities taking place that help to empower women and girls. Because with hosting volunteers from all over the world A Mano Manaba offers the possibility to create an intercultural exchange. And because it widens the horizon of the kids and changes their perspectives. We are sure that this generation of children who have access to the Library will be able to make a real difference and provoke positive changes in Don Juan.

      We are very thankful and glad that we could be part of this great project!

                                                                                                                                                Janina Martens

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Picture a young donkey on the beach: his pannier packed with colorful children´s books, as he steps over the rubble and devastation his tolling bell is calling the children left homeless by a 7.8 earthquake, to read. This is the kernel of what, two years later, is A mano manaba Children´s Library today.  And this attest to the fact that, yes, books can turn adversity into opportunity.

 It all started when my husband and I left our academic tenured positions to live and read with the children of a small fishing village in northern Manabí, Ecuador. Little did we know that, a month after this life changing move, our home, along with every single house in this tiny village, was to be destroyed by a catastrophic earthquake that caused 650 deaths and left 650.000 people homeless in Ecuador on April 2016.  A few days after the shock we discovered that our pet donkey could carry books in its panier and so we set camp on the beach where all the children of the village came running to pet him and see the books it carried.  

 When there was no electricity, running water, schools or medical services we “played Library” on the beach with colorful books, notebooks and crayons, sharing happy and constructive afternoons with the children of Don Juan.  At that time we reached out and you answered.  Due to the immediate need of a roof where we could meet, we postponed the Library bus and built the Children´s Library instead.  The open and free space of our Children´s Library shares the same spirit with the beach: our first venue. Respectful silence, consideration to the needs of others and continued accessibility to books, arts, and crafts is something our young neighbors never envisioned but have learned to demand as essential to their growth. 

 Today the Children´s Library sits on a beautiful bamboo building in the center of the village offering remedial reading programs; homework assistance; teacher training; arts and crafts workshops; adult education; taekwondo and self-defense training for girls and women.   Our main focus are young girls. We believe that girls age 10-12 are the motor of a needed gender dynamics change that will unsettle the patriarchal domination that burdens women and children in this community.

 Now that our pet donkey is pasturing on a nearby farm and we are settled in this beautiful bamboo Library is the time to take the next step.  We need to buy, install and set off on the Library bus that will take us to remote villages in our canton and replicate the programs that have proved successful in Don Juan. A Library bus will expand the remedial reading program; teacher training modules; arts and crafts workshops; theater, music, dance exhibitions.  It will also permit us to share the generous donations of encyclopedias, dictionaries and a basic know how on homework assistance. With this itinerary we will assemble a line of partners in remedial reading and homework assistance programs that will be the foundation of a circuit of future Children´s Libraries along the pacific coast of Ecuador.

 Our endeavors meet different needs:  accessibility to books and learning assistance; communal space for meeting and training opportunities; intercultural exchange with international volunteers; broadening the possibilities in life.  The core value of this venture is the grounding of a lettered environment in a community historically neglected by educational services. This life changing experience can be a pilot case other urban professionals may find gratifying: by riding along on the Library bus they will contribute to the betterment of a community,  and maybe redirect their personal purpose in life. 

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