El Salvador: Las Marias Biblioteca Movil

The 2014 year for the Las Marias Mobil Library was full of successes. I was invited to the end of the year graduation ceremonies and nominated by the graduating class as the recognized staff. I was privileged to attend the ceremony on December 11, 2014.

I took advantage of the time and met with the staff of all schools participating in the lending library program. We brainstormed ideas on how to keep the program running as the original budget provided by Queen's ran out. I will be reaching out to all former school graduates of the Las Marias school and asking for contributions either in funds or books and I will be contributing annually to the budget of the school so that the library can remain open part-time in Las Marias.

We discussed going to monthly visits to the schools and having the schools pay the $20 transportation cost for the day each month. That is a lot from their budget but they are committed due to the benefits of having books accessible to the children.

Now for some stats:
We started  with 917 books and ended the year with 1040 books! While we added 123 books, we also had 105 books damaged and repaired during the year. As the usage increases, books become more fragile and hence the increase in damage.

During 2014 we purchased 142 more books, we had 77 books donated so we closed the year with 1,259 books. Additionally we have 460 books (repeated/same title).

As usual if you'd like to contribute or sponsor the transportation for one school it costs $120 for the year. If you'd like to donate books you can send them to the following address:

Attencion: Fausto Orfilio Bonilla
Canton Las Marias de Yucuaiquin, La Union
El Salvador, Centro America
or email ynochoa@Hotmail.com for an alternative Canadian address.

 

Round table brainstorming and  lunch with staff of the six participating schools. 

 

2014 Grade Nine graduation class.