Provide Quality Education to 15000 Amazon Children

Dear supporter,

This is our last report of a very busy year!

As you may know, each year Vaga Lume’s Technical Team goes on monitoring trips to rural communities in the Amazon. But in 2015, getting close to our 15^th year birthday, we decided to do even more, we visited all the community libraries in just one year to monitor and evaluate the work that has been done since 2001. It was 171 days in the field where we were able to train new volunteers as reading mediators, strength the relationship with the communities and a lot more.

During those 53.000 miles travelled, we received many visitors such as volunteers, representatives of our partners, groups of researchers, etc.. Among them, was Eliana Gagliardi. Graduated in Philosophy and in Applied Linguistic, she met the organization when the school she managed - Oswald de Andrade School – became part of Vaga Lume’s Intercultural Dialogue Program and now that she has retired, she came to us to be a volunteer.

She accompanied the monitoring expedition to the municipality of Ponte Alta do Tocantins, in Tocantins state. During the trip, she observed the reading mediation training session that Vaga Lume has promoted to youth in the community and after that, she wrote us a letter that we would like to share with you:

"Within my impressions of this expedition, I could see that Vaga Lume’s educators have experience and get along very well with community residents. I also realized that community residents were totally opened and interested in learning about reading mediation, about books and how important is to have access to them. They learnt to maintain the space and to offer it to the community so they can use it for storytelling, dance, and other cultural activities.

As a volunteer, I flied to learn. I've learnt with the educators of Vaga Lume, I've learnt with educators from the Amazon. I've learnt, among other things, to consider and interact with different cultures. This kind of learning demands attention, effort and open mind of all of the involved. Demands availability, mobilization and conviction that books and reading mediation can make difference: they are the first steps – along with literacy – to form readers and above all: citizens".

We are very happy to have Eliana as a volunteer and her letter gave us one more reason to continue working to create opportunities for cultural exchange through reading and valuing the protagonism of people from the Amazon. We hope you feel the same way!

We would like to thank you for being part of it and invite you to keep on navigating with us through the rural communities of the Amazon!

Other stories and news are available at www.vagalume.org.br/home

If you have any doubts or comments, do drop us a line!

Kind regards,

Vaga Lume's Team.

Links:

• Vaga Lume's website

Dear supporter,

If you have been following our story, you might remember that Vaga Lume’s educators have been traveling around the Brazilian Legal Amazon region since June this year to monitor and evaluate the work carried out at the community libraries where the organization operates.. Since the beginning of the trip, which is called "Vaga Lume Expedition - 15 years ", we've visited around 74 community libraries out of the existing 159.

Two weeks ago, I, together with two of Vaga Lume's educators, Celice and Aline visited the community libraries in Carauari, in the state of Amazonas, and met Melque. Melque has been helping Vaga Lume carry out its mission in Carauari since he was a teenager and today, he is the Representative of the municipality’s Local Team. Every month, Melque takes a small boat and begins a journey along the river Juruá (which is a southern affluent river of the Amazon River) to visit each community library that Vaga Lume helps to maintain. He usually takes with him new books to fill up the bookshelves and to encourage the people who live in those communities to engage with the project and to connect themselves with literature and reading.

During the last Expedition to Carauari, Melque took Vaga Lume's educators to a meeting with young protagonists that was being held at Pupuai's community. There, Melque introduced Vaga Lume Association to those who didn't know what it was, and made a brief speech: "I know that many of you have a library in your community that often receive books from Vaga Lume. I know that plenty of you here recognize the importance that those books have to you, to your parents, to our communities and to the region. I believe that education is something that leads us to a great future, and because of that, I'm part of Vaga Lume's team. We have the same beliefs; we consider education an empowerment tool and we know how important it is to put this tool in your hands. You, young protagonists, know what's best for yourself and for the place you live in. You know the importance of preserving your culture and what you -and all of us- need to do to keep it sustainable and alive. You have the tool that gives you power to build your own future".

Melque knows how important this job is because he understands the difference that books and reading had made in his life. Today, he knows how to read, but even more important than that, he knows that the world is much bigger than he thought. Today, he knows stories from all over the world! Through his own experience, Melque found out how inspiring literature can be and, because of that, he also became a role model for the children, young people and adults around him.

This is a simple but often repeated story of someone that does everything he can to provide a better education to the people of his community. And, thanks to your generosity, Vaga Lume is able to make it possible too. Every simple action can make a profound difference!

Your donation has been helping to change the life of Melque, young protagonists and all who live around them!

Thank you for being part of it!

Warm regards,

Daniela, on behalf of the very proud Vaga Lume Team.

Links:

• Vaga Lume's website