Library empowers Girls & Women in coastal Ecuador

As the year 2022 is about to end, we look back at all that we have been able to accomplish: a bamboo seismic resistant building; housing the volunteers,and a library with 7.000 cataloged books, computers, games and didatic resources that offer kids the experience of learning as fun. 

Today I would like to celebrate the more than 180 international volunteers that left the comfort of their homes, traveled across land and sea to reach this tiny fishing village in the north coast of Manabí, Ecuador  to read and write with our young neighbors.  

Many were seasoned travelers, exploring the world with their families or by themselves. They were seeking to make the world their own, enjoying it and taking responsibility for it, as we all should.  These traveling families were teamworkers who taught by example, no preaching required. Young volunteers brought the contagious enthusiasm that makes  anything possible. They left a courtail of optimism reassuring us that we are heading in the right direction. Couples settled in our small village as if to start a new life and took on the most difficult children under their care. They dedicated extra long hours, even more than was required, like when Em and Al were teaching business and marketing at the local night school, or when Mar and Ru spent most of their weekends with a little girl that never met her parents. 

The amazing conceptual artist HS and her husband E. came twice. During her first visit, she had the children depict their experience of the earthquake on a mural that now decorates our garden; on the second she rallied the fishermen and their wifes to paint a collective mural, based on what their lives looked like before the actual, “modern” highway connected us with the rest of the country.   A y E -from Cataluña- tirelessly worked after hours doing the flooring, painting the mural, while still working in the Library.  M -a medical doctor- remains  the trusted physician our neighbors call  whenever somebody is ill, years after having volunteered at the library. T  brought his ukulele and his talent for happiness to us and went on to share it with even smaller libraries we support in the countryside.  

We want to thank and honor all volunteers who share their skills and experience in photography arts, pedagogical training, compost and gardening, those who helped the writing process of more than 30 high school graduates, those who took the time and care in designing a specific masculinity project for our boys. We also want to thank  those local last minute volunteers that are here in a few hours when we have transitions.  

Upon departure, many of these hard working volunteers become recurring donors in GlobalGiving.  

With the arrival of  each one of these wonderful human beings, our hope is revived and our commitment strenghtend.  We are in this together.

Thank you all!    ¡Felices fiestas!

Links:

• Our web page
• Youtube channel
• FB

When we signed up as volunteers for a children's library, we imagined children reading books or borrowing them to take home. However, upon our arrival at A Mano Manaba, in Don Juan, Manabí province, Ecuador, we realized that this place is much more than a library. Each week we display an array of ¨learning by playing¨ activities with one thing in common: the child's self determination to get an education.

We began the week by going to the local primary school to pick up a small group of kids who attend remedial reading in the library on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. These children are selected from the upper grades. After a brief training on the phonological phonetic method, which prioritizes the sound and representation of each letter rather than its name, we work with each child on an individual basis. With this system, girls and boys acquire autonomy, confidence and stronger writing and reading skills.

After remedial reading we go back to the school with the kids for recess where we interact on the playground with children and teachers, encouraging respectful relationships and gender equality dynamics. The range of activities is wide: we play with a diabolo, jump rope or use a hula hoop. Sometimes we play games that combine learning with fun or sports, like throwing a ball from the center of a circle while counting numbers in English or doing simple addition, subtraction or multiplication. We also take books from different grade levels to reinforce the idea that it is fun to read in our free time.

Every afternoon 15-25 children come to the library to do homework, read or spend a relaxed moment of learning and fun in a quiet environment, specially created for them. The afternoon always begins with the heart of any library: reading. We invite the children to pick out a book, appropriate to their age and reading level, and read for a while. Some can read on their own, others need our help to enjoy and learn from the story. After reading time, we take on homework. With our assistance and all the resources and strategies we can offer, kids realize how important and fun understanding can be. Instead of just copying lessons or making half-hearted efforts on the task at hand, they have decided to learn. Gender equality: Persona Pacífica A Mano Manaba is currently applying in depth the persona pacifica or Peaceful Person program, dedicated exclusively to boys aged 10+. Daily meetings for an hour in the library garden are dedicated just to boys. Here they talk, play and bond with each other, based on trust and affection, and are given the opportunity to get to know other forms of masculinity, different from the traditional male model they know. This process is part of the larger work on healthy masculinities that A Mano Manaba is promoting. In short, A Mano Manaba is much more than a library, and all the activities faithfully reflect the its core values: gender equality, liberating education, environmental awareness and valuing ancestral culture for the future. Every week is thrilling, different and truly rewarding.

Links:

• Our web page
• Our youtube channel
• Follow us in FB