Angie outside of the Tomina library
Angie is a twelve-year-old girl who lives in the town of Tomina. She lives with her grandmother across the street from the library. Unfortunately her grandmother doesn’t know the value of education and the positive impact that the library can (and is) having on Angie’s life; she doesn’t allow Angie to visit the library after she returns home from her morning classes.READ MORE
Recently, BiblioWorks worked with another Bolivian nonprofit and a Polish organization, Condortrekkers and Early Stage, to create a fundraiser documentary about the lives of Bolivian children in one of our rural library towns, Morado K’asa (also spelled Q’asa). It only made sense that a song in their primary language of Quechua would be the soundtrack. So one weekend in November, we set out to bring eight children to the city to record the song. The kids from Morado K’asa were so excited to come to Sucre that they arrived to their library a full 2.5 hours before we got there to pick them up. READ MORE
A teacher works with some of the kids in the school in Morado K’asa
The past few months, BiblioWorks has been working with a local organization called Condor Trekkers and an organization based in Poland called Early Stage, to create a documentary video about the community of Morado K’asa.
The main focus of the video is to highlight the lives of children in a rural, indigenous community in Bolivia to share with children in Poland. The video and an accompanying song, performed by the kids in Morado K’asa, will then be sold to parents in Poland who participate in Early Stage’s projects.READ MORE
Every week, I find myself walking 2k to the nearest town, Cororo, to buy a bus ticket back to Sucre. Normally my walk takes me along the Tarabuco carretera, a 30 minute journey traipsing across a beautiful but incredibly dry landscape. However, the highway twists and turns, causing the trip to meander rather than lead directly to the neighboring town. Having walked the same road a couple of times, I was convinced that there must be a more direct route between the two. Today, I decided that I would try to find the illusive shortcut between my home in Morado K’asa and Cororo.READ MORE
Kids smiling in one of the classrooms in Bolivia that receives support from our teacher training programs.
BiblioWorks is pleased to announce the details of its 2012 Annual Benefit and Holiday Auction, benefiting its programs in Bolivia! We hope any who are in the Asheville area will be able to join us for an evening of celebration that will include live music, drinks and more! Our very own Matt Lynn will be in town from Bolivia for the event to talk about our ongoing work. We also hope that you’ll consider donating an item for our silent auction. If you have any questions about the event or would like to arrange to donate an item, please call us at 828-239-0271.READ MORE
Child doing a creative writing activity in the Pampa Aceituno library
This year BiblioWorks has teamed up with the Bolivian run and owned petroleum company YPFB transporte to open a new school library in the small community of Pampa Aceituno. The community is in the municipality of Sucre and is about a 15 minute ride up into the mountains surrounding Sucre.READ MORE
I have been volunteering with Biblioworks for just over a month now. I am working in one of Biblioworks` few school libraries, located in the community of Pampa Aceituno, which is about a half hour drive outside of Sucre. It has been a fascinating experience. Everything, from taking care of the library, helping teachers tutor students who need one-on-one attention, teaching a weekly English class, to simply getting there (usually in the back of a camioneta), has been a great experience for me.
Kids turnout for reading activities
As the Bolivian school year comes to a close, all of our libraries are working hard to assist children and high-school students with their homework in preparation for their final exams. An important activity for the end of the school year, in every town, is an educational festival to spotlight the hard work the children have done all year.
BiblioWorks and the library in Tarabuco were recently asked to prepare activities for the educational festival to be held in the main plaza. The BiblioWorks staff and volunteers prepared lots of materials, books and games for the children who would participate in the festival.READ MORE
The children were very excited to receive the new clothes!
While BiblioWorks is dedicated to literacy and libraries, the communities where we are working are some of the poorest in Bolivia and the people have lots of material needs. A few months ago, we saw, in two of the communities where we are currently working, Pampa Aceituno and Morado K’asa, that the children had very few clothes. In a few extreme cases there were children without shoes.READ MORE
