Child Aid - Building Brighter Futures

Pasaq, Guatemala – Three years ago, when Child Aid helped Alberta Guarchaj launch a school-break reading program in her village’s new library, fewer than 10 children showed up. Alberta continued to participate in Child Aid’s librarian training sessions, and she tailored the program, known as Adventures in Reading, to fit the needs of her village.

Children participating in reading activities during Child Aid’s Adventures in Reading program in Pasaq.

The following year, 30 children turned out for the program, and Alberta continued to promote it in her community. Because books were formerly rare in Pasaq, even in the village school, parents began to take interest in the program. Most adults in the village are unable to read and know from experience that literacy has tangible economic benefits.

Throughout Guatemala, impoverished parents, especially women, express sadness about their inability to contribute more to their families economically. For most of them, the obstacle is the same: they cannot read.  So parents in Pasaq saw Adventures in Reading as an alternative. The program could help their children avoid the crippling trap of illiteracy. The more time their kids spent in the library, the quicker they were learning to read and the better they performed in school.

In 2011, Alberta conducted Adventures in Reading again. But this year, 70 to 100 children crammed into the library each day to listen to the stories she read. They pulled books off the shelves to read to themselves, and they participated in the literacy activities that form the heart of the program.

At a recent Child Aid Librarian Training Workshop, Alberta told librarians from other villages about her successes with Adventures in Reading. She described children beginning to read on their own and checking out books to bring home to their families. She talked about improvements children were making in their writing skills, and about parents attending reading sessions with their kids.  And she talked about how the program, combined with Child Aid’s other work in the village, is creating opportunities for her community that never before existed.

For Child Aid, the success of Adventures in Reading in Pasaq is another indicator that our program works. Literacy doesn’t happen overnight. It takes long-term commitment and requires flexible programs that communities can adopt and make their own. This year, a total of 21 villages conducted our Adventures in Reading program, engaging thousands of children in reading activities during the three-month school break.

This week is National Library Week! To celebrate, help Child Aid create better libraries for some of Guatemala’s poorest children.

In the United States, it’s easy to take libraries for granted. They are free, welcoming public spaces where children can learn, study, and of course, borrow great books. Many libraries offer free classes and homework help, provide community resources, host author readings and advertise local events. Imagine your community without a library.

Kids reading new books in the library Child Aid helped create in the town of Las Canoas. Thanks to our donors we helped the community build new shelving and furniture.

In most rural impoverished villages in Guatemala, libraries are extremely rare and high-quality educational resources are even less common. Child Aid works to change this. We help indigenous communities create libraries that provide access to books and reading programs for local children. Child Aid stocks these libraries with new children’s books and helps librarians establish after-school and summer reading programs. With these new opportunities children finally have access to the resources and materials that will help them advance educationally. In a country where most Mayan children drop out of school by 3rd grade, these opportunities can be the stepping stones needed to escape a life of poverty.

How can you celebrate National Library Week?

Donate to Child Aid. We will use your gift to bring libraries to rural Guatemalan towns for the first time ever.

Give a gift to Child Aid in honor of the librarian in your life, and we will send a tribute card.

If you live in the Portland, Ore area, join us on a beautiful bike ride to support Child Aid’s rural librarian training program. The ride will take place on Sunday, September 20, in the idyllic countryside around Forest Grove, just west of Portland. We’ll ride through vineyards, forests and rolling hills, all for the sake of great cause: community libraries in Guatemala and helping children learn to read. There are three rides so peddlers of all levels and ages can participate: an 11 mile ride, a 30 mile ride and the 55 mile challenge ride. Read more about the ride and register online here. We hope to see you there!! 

Child Aid’s first reading program was based in the library located in El Tejar, a few miles up the mountains from Antigua. The program, Adventures in Reading (Aventuras en Lectura)was designed to help school age kids engage in reading during their school year break. Since then Child Aid has continued to run Adventures in Reading during the school year break and has provided training to hundreds of rural librarians, helping them help children develop reading skills they’ll keep for life.

Children listen to a story during Adventures in Reading

The librarian trainings and Adventures in Reading program both promote reading as well. The library in El Tejar is a perfect example.  The librarians here visit three schools each week where they read books with students in 11 different classes. The nearly 400 children in these classes are currently reading a book by Ann Cameron called Colibri, a story about a Mayan child kidnapped from her parents in Guatemala City and her long journey back to her family. The children read a few chapters each week as a class. After the reading session, the librarians lead the students through activities that help the students develop better critical thinking skills and comprehension skills,  and encourage them to use their imagination.

The program has sparked in the students a great interest in reading. Teachers say the kids refer to the stories throughout the week in class. The students are also reading books on their own, partly because of the reading program, but also because the library now has open stacks and a lending program. This means the children can peruse the books and can borrow the ones they like and read them at home.

This is a stark contrast to many communities in Guatemala where books simply do not exist, where students don’t have the opportunity to develop comprehension skills for reading, or learn to enjoy books for pleasure. Through the efforts of Child Aid we are making a difference in many of these communities by providing materials, training, and support and helping children develop better reading skills and stay in school.

Esta pequeña historia está relacionada con el programa de animación a la lectura. La maestra Magali Castillo es la madre de alumna Andrea Hernández Castillo de 11 años de edad y quien estudia en la escuela cantonal de El Tejar, Chimaltenango, cursando el quinto grado. Hace algunos días tuve la oportunidad de platicar con ella en el colegio Melotto, pues ahí trabaja. Me contó  que su hija llegó a su casa muy contenta y animada, comentándole que sus mejores días en la escuela son los días que reciben lectura por parte de la biblioteca ya que es muy divertido como les leen y que disfrutan mucho. Unos de sus comentarios fue: “Así si me gusta leer, no quiero faltar por que no quiero perderme ni un cuento!”

Elba reading to a group of young students

[Elba es la bibliotecaria de niños en la Escuela Pedro Molina en Guatemala. A cientos de niños cada semana, ella les lleva la pasión de lectura con las programas de Child Aid in animación]

(This brief story is about Child Aid’s active reading program. The teacher Magali Castillo is the mother of the 11-year-old student, Andrea Hernández Castillo, who attends fifth grade at the school in El Tejar, Chimaltenango. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to speak with [Ms Castillo] at the Melotto school where she works. She told me that her daughter arrived home very happy and animated, and was telling her that her best days in school were the days that they were read to in the library, that the way they read was very fun and that they enjoyed it immensely. One of things she said was, “I like reading so much that I don’t want to miss a single day because I don’t want to miss even one story!”

[Elba is the librarian at Pedro Molina school’s children’s library in Guatemala. She brings the passion of reading to hundreds of children every week through Child Aid’s active reading programs])

Chicacao, Guatemala

Blanca standing outside the library with children who are waiting for their turn to go inside

How does she do it?

I am talking about Blanca Esquina, the fiery librarian in Chicacao who works tirelessly to help the children in her community receive an education. The library has more than 1,500 users a month. At times it overflows with students, and many wait outside until there is space available for them to come inside.

More children waiting to use Chicacao’s library, proof of its success in the community!

On top of attending to students in the library, she overseas five students who have received Child Aid scholarships to help when the library is busiest. She visits eight schools every week to promote reading in various classes, she has a weekly program for 14 three- to four-year-olds whose parents bring them to the library to introduce them to reading at an early age. This month, on top of everything else, she even organized a celebration for International Book Day. She has activities planned in the central plaza that will highlight reading, recognize a teacher for promoting reading in the classroom, and even has relay races planned using books to pass between teams of families and teachers.

Blanca loves what she gets to do every day. I asked her where she gets her energy and she responded by telling me that when she goes home she is spent. Her daughter will ask her what she wants for dinner and Blanca replies by saying “I am not hungry, I have been eating books all day”. What a spirit!

One thing that keeps pushing Blanca is the dream to see more kids go to college. She knows that the only way for the children of Chicacao to have a better life is to get an education, and she knows that reading and a well-functioning library is a key to success for these kids.

Inside Chicacao’s community library, which Child Aid donors made possible

Seeing the library brimming with kids, I asked Blanca if there were any developments on getting a bigger space. (The current library, which Child Aid helped Blanca and the library committee create, is already bigger than the original library and has become so popular that even more space is needed!) She told me that several parents are forming a Parent Committee because they see the need for more space and they are going to meet with the mayor to demand he give them property to build a larger library. She says the mayor will ask how they will build it, and her response was, If they get the property, the community and others will come around and build the library themselves. 

Blanca lives a life of fulfilled dreams and knows that the secret to a life well lived is a life given in service to her community. That is what keeps her going.