Library empowers Girls & Women in coastal Ecuador

Dear friends:

I would like to start by thanking you for your continued support to this project that empowers girls and women through educational programs, advances gender equality; fosters environmental commitment and nourishes ancestral and cultural awareness; so that this group of strong women and girls can spearhead social development in the northern coast of Ecuador.

We are happy and proud to remind you how we came to be Don Juan’s FAMM library.  After a 7.8 earthquake -April 2016- destroyed the north coast of Ecuador, Rut and Esteban, who had also lost their home, “played Library at the beach” with the children of Don Juan.  Soon after, a former volunteer librarian whom, like every other neighbor in this tiny village, had also lost his home, got together with Rut and Esteban and offered to donate his land if they would vow to continue his Children’s Library. Ayuda Directa and Corporación Grupo Randi Randi, local NGOs working on the ground after the quake, helped Esteban and Rut organize and register Fundacion A mano manaba in the Ministerio de Inclusión Económico y Social -November 15, 2016-. After a successful fundraising campaign, and while still working in precarious conditions, in 2017 FAMM constructed a beautiful seismic-resistant building using bamboo and local materials.  The Children's Library, inaugurated in December 2017, now hosts the library space, volunteer lodgings, gardens, and a crafts center. FAMM has a collection of 5,168 books (many in English), plus 7 laptops, 5 tablets, 6 photo cameras, a printer, projector, and many school materials.

We finished cataloging the books donated to the children. These materials are used to improve reading skills and provide homework assistance for our kids.  Our efforts to help the local school are bearing fruit through programs, coordinated with the Ministry of Education, such as adult education, teacher training, English classes and “a day in the Library”. Our new empowerment program runs smoothly with Taekwondo sessions, the photo club, and soccer games which enforce women’s and girls’ new skills and tools.

Continuing with our outreach efforts, we have nourished and supported the beginnings of a school library in Estero Seco, a remote village inland from Don Juan.  Along with the local school teacher and a young neighbor, we have initiated the homework assistance program and reading enhancement activities. The community members have organized themselves and are hosting international volunteers who now teach English as a Second Language (ESL) and help the young local librarian. 

Intercultural and Gender equality program.- Our volunteers come from every corner of the world. We encourage couples to stay with us for at least 8 weeks. By doing so, they not only instill learning skills through our educational programs but also become knowledgeable about manabita culture and learn machete handling, fishing, how to clean fish and local cuisine.  This intercultural exchange is building pride and confidence in our neighbor’s cultural self-esteem. Our volunteer couples also embody an alternative gender dynamic, one that is enforced by kindness, respect, and equality, thereby unsettling the violent mores that are pervasive within manabita households.  

Arts and Crafts.- One of our volunteer couples, Hsuan Yin and Eduardo  (from Hong Kong and Mexico) taught our children to design and paint a thirty-seven-foot conceptual mural depicting the history of this tiny fishing village based on oral stories told by the children and their parents.  After 8 weeks and with more than fifty local participants, the results were amazing. We now enjoy the beauty of a narrative mural on the wall in front of the Library. The children were so fascinated by their painting experience that we invited another artist couple to join us, so the art frenzy could go on. Ruben and Mar, from Cataluña, spent 8 weeks with us and created an imaginary animal theme park with the kids. They would go to the beach to “discover” seahorses, crocodiles, monsters and fairies in the bamboo sticks and logs the sea sculpts with its waves. Then, they would drag them back to the library, paint and plant them in front of our beautiful mural.  All this creative activity was accompanied by readings about mythical animals and fantastic creatures. Children continue intertwining words and images; they’ve become aware and confident of the enriching combination of books and creative imagination. 

Library Services.- Along with international volunteers and young women neighbors trained as assistant librarians, we now offer educational programs such as remedial reading, ESL, homework assistance, environmental workshops, Taekwondo and self-defense, sports and arts. All the educational programs advance gender equality as a cross-cutting value that is already modifying the traditions of this oppressive patriarchal setting. We now are ready to add a Library vehicle to the Center and travel up and down the coast to more isolated villages, sharing the books, programs, and resources that save lives and empower young girls to become women leaders.

This will be our last stage of fundraising for the Library vehicle that will allow us to share and expand all the great and successful programs we are enjoying in Don Juan.  All this could not have happened without the friendship and support of individuals like you, that got us so far ahead from the bleak unhappy times of the earthquake to our present, where we dream of sharing beautiful books, wonderful volunteers and exciting materials that continue to arrive at our doorstep. 

Please join us in our next campaign! With your help we will continue empowering girls and women through educational programs, advancing gender equality; fostering environmental commitment and nourishing ancestral and cultural awareness; so that this group of strong women and girls can spearhead social development in the northern coast of Ecuador.

Please, do consider visiting Don Juan to see for yourself the results of your generous contribution. 

Hasta pronto!

Links:

• Our web page