Presentation to the American Library Association about the Las Marías Mobile Library

This is a poster regarding our partnership with the HJH Foundation's Libraries For All Program. Thanks to Jane and her team for continuing to support our work with the Las Marías Mobile Library. Poster was prepared for the American Library Association.

Saying goodbye to El Salvador but not to the project...

My last few weeks in El Salvador were difficult as I had to return to Canada earlier than expected due to unforeseen circumstances. After some tearful goodbyes, visits to families' homes, a bag full of letters and cards from the children and final visits to the schools for an ice cream goodbye celebration, our family flew back to Canada.

Today, Modesto and the teachers and directors continue to visit the schools on a bi-weekly basis and I maintain communication with then to see how it is going. I will be doing some fundraising to purchase more books from Vernon, BC (our new home) and hope to work toward a twin city program for the municipality of Yucuaiquín, La Union.

Here are some pictures of our final weeks! I will keep you posted on our fundraising event.

Working on sustainability...

I finally arranged for representatives from the National Public Library in San Salvador to meet with the mayor of Yucuaiquín last Thursday, April 10, 2013.

Lilian Montenegro from the National Public Library met with Carlos Gutierrez, mayor of Yucuaiquín, and came to a tentative agreement to work together to open a public library in Yucuaiquín.

Mr. Gutierrez was left with a contract to take to council and forward to the national library in San Salvador in order to formalize the agreement.

Terms include:
Mr. Gutierrez allocates a space within the city to house the library and provides a staff person to supervise. The city also commits to seek out ways to grow the initial collection which is provided by the National Library.

The national library commits to provide training and support to the new staff/program and incorporate the city into the network of public libraries.

Mr. Carlos Gutierrez and I.

Coordinator of public libraries and I.

Ms. Montenegro, Mr. Gutierrez and I.

Lilian Montenegro and I in front of the municipal hall.

The work continues and our involvement with the schools is solicited more and more!

Our visits to the schools are now bi-weekly and the children and youth are excited to receive us each time we come. We will visit the schools on the first and third week of each month going forward.

Modesto and I spend the time we are not out planning and preparing the activities for the weeks that we do go out on visits. We prepare reminder cards for children who did not return their books on the due date and attend the meetings we are invited to.

I have given presentations to parents at two schools; both of which are not ones we visit but still in the municipality. The topics have been learning difficulties and the role of the parent in a child's education. Of course I invite these communities to visit us at the library in Las Marias and access some of the self-help and other resource material we have available. So far we have had three parents come and become members of the library and check out books.

I have been asked to come and give a one hour English conversational class once a week at one of the schools and I'm in the process of coordinating the times and schedules for this which will begin this month.

I am still working on bringing the national library's representative to meet with Yucuaquin's mayor but the mayor has given his verbal support to establishing a library at a new building they are constructing which will house a medical clinic. That would certainly give more sustainability to the project once I exit the scene.

Pictures of the inauguration.

Children with some of the prizes given away.

This kindergardener came from a village about a 45 minute walk away!

Many parents stayed out of the way of the main sitting areas.

All ages were welcomed and all ages attended!

Some of the games brought to the village.

Clowning around. The clown also spoke about reading and gave away books as prizes.

Lining up for a tour of the bibliobus!

Toy area inside the bibliobus.

First activity in the bibliobus was a reading.

Face painting was one of the activities.

The newly painted tables at the school were prepared especially for additional activities during inauguration.

The inauguration was a great success! It was held on January 28^th and 29^th. It was held over tow days in order to accommodate the large number of people interested in attending from the various schools in the municipality. Most schools, with the exception of two sent parents, students and teachers to the event even the schools which are not part of the mobile library program at this point.

There were 435 students, parents and teachers in attendance on the 28^th and 311 students, parents, and teachers in attendance on the 29^th. To aid in managing these large numbers we had six staff from the national library’s Bibliobus from San Salvador. The Bibliobus is a traveling bus equipped with books and activities for children which promotes reading. It travels to communities around the country when requested and is part of the national strategy to foster reading and the national reading program.

Also, supporting us during the inauguration were one staff member, one volunteer and the Volunteer Director of the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca, in Nicaragua. They were instrumental in coordinating the days’ activities, and brought many of the prizes which were given away to the children. They traveled here by bus and I picked and dropped them off in San Miguel so that they could be part of the inaugural ceremony. The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca has been instrumental in the success of our mobile library project.

This report is a little late due to the holidays... and the planning of the inauguration! But better late than never... This month I had some nice downtime to celebrate the festivities of the village of Las Marias (above are pictures of the some of the festivities). My daughters were solicited to participate in the fundraising events of the town and were able to help raise funds for the church.

In early January I visited the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library) in San Salvador and met with the Director, Lic. Velasco to discuss how we can work together the make the mobile library project more sustainable. I was also able to get their support for our inauguration happening on Jan. 28th and 29th. They will be sending out the "Bibliobus" to help present and raise awareness in the community about the importance of reading.

One other achievement during this meeting was getting their commitment to come and meet with the mayor of Yucuaiquin to discuss the possibility of opening a public library in the city of Yucuaiquin. I also met with the mayor over this past month to let invite his government to lend support to the project and attend the inauguration. Hopefully all of my petitions will come to fruition over the next month or so.

I visited several embassies over the past month taking a letter asking for support of our project and our  school and also to let them know about the project and its goals. I visited five embassies. Additionally, I request support from two bi-lingual schools and requested donations of books from their collections. It was a nice quiet month but I believe I accomplished many administrative tasks despite the holidays.