Bringing Books to Children
What is a 1973, English-language copy of the New China Review doing in a tiny library of a Mayan school? Each year, thousands of such locally useless books – many of them decades old – land in developing countries as part of well-meaning but ill-considered foreign donations. Sadly, they do nothing to further the cause of literacy.
By contrast, Child Aid delivers thousands of quality, Spanish-language children’s books to libraries throughout the Guatemalan Highlands every year. And we don’t just dump them and run. Our literacy teams work in local schools and libraries to ensure that children have access to these much needed materials. We help librarians remove useless titles from their collections, catalogue incoming books and improve library spaces. We encourage them to lend books – something rarely done in Guatemala – and help them create book-lending programs so children can read at home.
Most importantly, we train librarians and teachers to use these materials in daily reading programs. The tens of thousands of books that Child Aid delivers are critical tools in our fight against illiteracy.
