After the speeches, music and poetry it was time to go into the library…
Thursday October 29th, a team of staff and volunteers from BiblioWorks traveled to the library in Villa Abecia where they were met by children, youth, teachers and other members of the community. Everyone was eager to see the new books (139 bought by BiblioWorks and 125 by the municipal government of Villa Abecia) and to take part in a celebration of reading and culture complete with speeches, music and poetry by the educational and municipal authorities as well as students and volunteers.
Municipal authorities checking out the new books during the preparations for the ceremony.
Maritza, Lisa and Ava blowing up balloons in the library.
…AND READ!
If you have been following our blog for awhile you might be asking yourself, wasn’t the library in Villa Abecia inaugurated in December 2014? And you would be correct but at that time, the library didn’t have a physical space. In early 2015, we had two volunteers help set up the library in Villa Abecia in a room in the central market. Unfortunately, there was no librarian at that time and, after they left, the library was only open sporadically.
Now the library is open in a new dedicated space with a lovely librarian, Maria Rene. She is joined by a volunteer family from Canada – Lisa, Michael and Ava – who are hoping to stay for six months.
Maria Rene and Martiza
Lisa, Michael and Ava
Initial reports from Lisa are that they have set up a weekly schedule including a session for preschoolers, read aloud times, reading clubs for children and youth, English lessons, a Reader’s Theatre group, homework help and more!
There is a Book Festival taking place in Villa Abecia at the end of November and the Reader’s Theatre group are planning to present.
We look forward to hearing more about the great things taking place in our 12th library!
If you would like to donate to the work that we do here at BiblioWorks, which includes training librarians and buying books amongst other things, please follow the link at the top of this page to donate securely via PayPal. If you are interested in finding out more information about volunteering opportunities in Villa Abecia or another of our libraries, please visit the ‘Volunteer in Bolivia’ link at the left hand side of this page.