Early Childhood Literacy & Nutrition in Guatemala

“I learned about colors at library”.

Riecken Community Libraries of Guatemala are a space for all.

It’s not easy to know the number of people with disabilities in Guatemala; Official data are not very accurate or current and social silence increases invisibility of this reality. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 10% of the population of the world lives with some form of physical, sensory, intellectual or mental disabilities; 2002 Population Census of Guatemala estimate is 6.2% in Guatemala. Rights of people with disabilities could be violated with several ways; lack of access to information, to free movement, to basic services such as health, education and rehabilitation, denial of opportunities of job training, employment and economic participation, social and political, even situations of abuse-physical, psychological, sexual, threats to its integrity and his life. According to UNESCO, 90% of children with disabilities don’t go to the school.

Riecken Community Libraries want to support reverse this situation. Riecken community libraries contribute to finding a solution to the social exclusion in rural communities of Guatemala.

People with disability are excluded in the community of La Libertad (Morales, Guatemala); a cause of their disability, they didn’t learn to read. One of them is a person with a mental disability and his greatest wish is to learn the colors, but also he wants to learn to read and write. Riecken Community Library of La Libertad offers a safe and comfortable space in which both are taking their first steps in learning to read, using the library computers.

Links:

• Riecken Foundation