Gender Equality Ecuador Project #46889

Library empowers Girls & Women in coastal Ecuador

by Fundacion A mano manaba

Library empowers Girls & Women in coastal Ecuador

Project Report | Mar 6, 2024
A little makes a huge difference

By Myriam Palacios | Project Leader

A little makes a huge difference

These words certainly become a reality when walking into our library.

As children and young adults come in, a little gesture such as everyone taking their shoes off, is a huge sign of respect. Everyone is greatful to have a safe place where they can express their needs, be respected, heard or receive help with their English classes or homework.

As the minutes go by, you can see many smiles of gratitude or happiness. All thankful for having learned how to play chess, for learning new words in English or German, for understanding how to do their homework and having many friends to count on. These smiles fill our hearts and reassures us that we are doing our best for these children.

When walking outside, our open space protects us from a beautiful warm afternoon sun. The afternoon may start off with a yoga session, to calm everyone down and ready for a great beginning. A few minutes later, laughter fills the air as we see and hear children singing a song that one of our volunteers is teaching them. Meanwhile, a smaller group is playing a a game of four corners, to review grammar concepts in Spanish.

If it’s Wednesday, our younger students come back full of energy after their swimming lessons at a nearby pool. If it’s Thursday, our teens may be coming back, tired but at the same time excited, because they caught a glimpse of a Howler monkey jumping from tree to tree.

This is what our days at the library are filled with. Little things that fill our hearts with joy, and all this mainly because of your support, our fantastic volunteers, and our children and young adults who day to day come looking for new fun ways to learn.

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Nov 14, 2023
Our LIbrary is a safe heaven for teenagers

By Rut Roman | Project Leader

Surfing with friends

Since its beginnings, this community Library has been established as a safe place for the most vulnerable. Due to recent encroachment of violence connected with drug trafficking, we are very concerned about the boy's safety that is currently in dire risk. All our educational programs are transversed by gender equality, intercultural values and environmental awareness. We pay specific attention to teenagers ages 10-18, we believe that nourishing girls' self-esteem through reading, homework assistance, ESL, acting, dance, and sports will enable them to develop a healthy sense of their bodies and their lives as a territory they command. At the same time, we work with their young male peers in masculinity workshops and activities that will help them become aware, respectful and equal partners for future strong women.

With your help we provide educational assistance that increases school graduation and trains girls and boys for skilled labor and professions. Sports and arts programs open an array of healthy opportunities to mingle between genders. Our Library is an example other neighboring communities are replicating. Through alliance with conservancy organizations we hold an aquatic sports/marine conservancy program (snorkel, surf, diving) paired with marine conservancy training.

On top of all the natural disaster the town has endured, we are facing an increasing rise of violent crimes related to drug trafficking. A recent article including interviews with some of our patrons states: “ Homicides of Ecuadorians between the ages of 15 and 19 years old went up by 500% over the past five years.“https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2023/1011/Youth-violence-national-priority-as-Ecuador-votes-in-presidential-runoff

Once again, with your help we direct all our efforts to protect the most vulnerable. Our aquatic sports and marine conservancy program is a huge success. This project consists of a series of workshops followed by field trips to marine protected areas and communities that are involved in marine conservation along the coast. Fifteen kids have been selected to be part of this educational program, having an indirect impact in 15 families of the community. Kids learn and exchange experiences with these actors and develop skills such as snorkeling, diving, fish identification, coral nurseries, releasing baby hammerhead sharks trapped in fishing nests, turtle nests identification and visits to the mangroves. This program is encouraging them to protect their future along with the future of threatened marine species such as the hammerhead shark, which is still fished and consumed in this area. They will become the next generation of ocean guardians. Before each field trip workshops and educational activities are held at the library, to prepare students for the following field trips.

Maria Jose (30) a charismatic marine biologist who runs the program says: “this has been my biggest accomplishment as Coordinator of Educational Programs for Ceiba Foundation. Ceiba works in conservation, research and environmental education, therefore, being able to develop this project with the local Library connecting teenagers with their natural environment, promoting the understanding of the dry forest and the ocean, is an extraordinary achievement. I believe that people protect what they know and love. Personally, it has been extremely satisfactory to work with teenagers and see first hand, how they become our ocean and forest guardians.Besides promoting the understanding of ecosystems and the importance of preserving them, this project aims to open the horizons to the participants by showing them how they can dream and become anything they want and pursue different careers. My aim is to keep working on this project long term, increase the number of participants, create awareness among teenagers about the importance of protecting the environment and eventually see them happy pursuing their dreams.

https://fb.watch/ogKB8iPdlj/

Sincerely yours,

Your friends in Manabi

At sea

visiting mangroves

Links:

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Jul 17, 2023
My take on the magic of our Library

By Erika Lucas | Local volunteer

In the Library

I am Erika Lucas, a montubia chola (an epithet I can give myself to refer to the fact that my family lives and works by the sea in Manabí, Ecuador) from Bellavista Don Juan in the Jama canton, Manabí province in Ecuador. For me, the Library of the A Mano Manaba Foundation, FAMM is an earthly and magical place, with a deep community purpose. I am lucky that FAMM works on the beach where I live. Until I got to know the library, magic seemed something illusory to me, until I found out the level of commitment that each of the people who irect and collaborate with FAMM have. I know results in education are generational, but, I can notice changes in the girls and boys who attend the library. It seems that the library opens a window in their minds from which they can glimpse the world and the thousands of possibilities to change history with the support and tools they need to do so.

In my town, people have done the same for decades, there are few people who want and dare to experience something new for their personal and professional fulfillment. Now, thanks to FAMM, there is a group of young boys who are leaving the fishing nets and boats (a profession that is increasingly difficult and less profitable) for books, dreams and ideals, and girls who want to be writers, scientists, biologists, etc... I think they will achieve it because dreams have their way of realization in education and knowledge.

I have followed the work of the FAMM library since its inception. My profession as a social communicator has allowed me to contribute to the visibility of the hard work they have been doing since 2016. In 2022 I had the opportunity to volunteer for two months, therefore I am not only talking about what I read, or what I was able to observe at the time of carrying out a journalistic coverage in situ; I speak from everyday life. From the first crow of the rooster, which is heard as if it were next to your bed, there is movement inside the library. The volunteers -who come from all over the world- sweep, order and prepare the material and spaces for when the children arrive. Curiously, kids always arrive before opening the entrance door, everyone is clear about the slogan that the Library is free “without obligation, but with the heart”.

With the volunteers, an intercultural dynamic is established through which we meet people with other idiosyncrasies. From time to time, some leave, others arrive; This custom helps us feel more and more comfortable with differences, knowing that the geographical distance that separates us means nothing when we have established connections that unite us; because life is a coming and going of experiences read, told or lived.

Today I am talking about the work that is carried out here in the FAMM library on this beach, but I know that its permanence would not be possible without the support of donors like you. Just the fact that you are reading these lines means that we share the same goal: to help, within our possibilities- to balance the future for those who come after us. Thanks for joining us.

With our volunteers

Scuba diving

Microscope discoveries

Oral presentations

Workshop

Links:

Attachments:

My take on the magic of our Library (DOCX)

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