By Rut Roman | Project Leader
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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