By Rut Roman | Public Affairs
At the beginning of our work at the Fundación A Mano Manaba Library, we invited volunteers from all over the world to come and join us. Over the past nine years, more than 235 volunteers—young people and adults from every continent—have come to work with us. We were looking for strong, brave women who would strap on a backpack and set out to explore the world because it belongs to them. And we were also looking for young men who were just as strong and brave, but who could combine their strength with the tenderness and empathy of contemporary masculinity.
After more than nine years, unfortunately, due to increasing insecurity in the province of Manabí, we are no longer able to host international volunteers. But once again, this project grows in the face of adversity. Now it is the local youth—girls and boys from the town of Don Juan—who volunteer in the library.
Today I want to honor our volunteers , and in particular, two of them: Juan and Pedro. Juan is now 17 and has been with us since the very first day we opened the library in his village. He’s about to graduate from high school and has been awarded a special honor to carry the national flag during the graduation ceremony. This is a milestone, as that academic recognition has traditionally been given to members of the town’s most powerful families.
Juan and his friend Pedro have spent over two years leading a campaign to raise awareness about waste management. They’ve placed signage around homes, on the beach, and along paths to encourage neighbors to use the garbage bins they’ve built themselves. This initiative is part of a scholarship they receive from Fundación Mae Montaño, which provides them with a monthly stipend to support their studies.
These two young men also lead our “Forest and Sea” program, through which other young people from Don Juan take part in field trips to mangroves and dry tropical forests, and practice water sports as part of a pathway to deepen their knowledge of nature and their commitment to protecting endangered species in the area.
Today, these boys embody the very qualities we once looked for in young people from abroad. They represent a different way of being a man. They are empathetic, strong, and tender with younger children, and they now lead the volunteer program. They help kids with homework, tutor them in math, and encourage them to write their own stories instead of copying others. They lead by example and show that you don’t need to be born abroad to be a contemporary man.
They know what it means to interact with girls and women—with empathy, with the ability to truly listen, and with the grace and courage to take on all types of tasks—domestic, nurturing, maternal—with the same skill and dedication as their mothers and grandmothers.
We are immensely proud of them, and we are deeply grateful to you. Without your continued support, none of this would be possible.
A thousand thanks.
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