The eighth BiblioWorks library opens its doors!

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BiblioWorks is excited to announce the opening of our eighth library in rural Bolivia! The newest member of the BiblioWorks family is located in the town of Tomina, which is about 100 kilometers from the city of Sucre. It is a small town, with beautiful green hills and a peaceful river.

Kids being entertained before the ceremony

Our staff in Bolivia has been working for over a year with local government officials, education authorities, teachers, parents and children to open the library. After much hard work on the part of the Board of Directors in Asheville, N.C. , all of our Bolivian staff and the amazing people of Tomina, we were able to officially open the library on February 14^th, 2011.

The new library has approximately 1,500 new books, beautiful hand-made furniture, lots of educational games and puzzles, school supplies, posters, a computer for the librarian to inventory all of the books with, and much more. We are proud of this accomplishment and overjoyed to spread literacy and reading to communities that are most in need.

The official name of the library is “K’iskaluru,” the Quechua name of a cactus which only grows in the Tomina area. A legend the people of Tomina tell is that before there were inhabitants in the area there were only K’iskalurus. The people of Tomina were born from the cacti which grew in all of the surrounding valleys.

Since the opening we have gotten reports from the librarian that the library is filled to capacity every day. That is great news and we hope the children and young adults of Tomina will cherish the library and learn and grow from the books and other materials there.

Here are some pictures of the opening of the library: