What an exciting summer we've had in the Chajul Community Library!
Thanks to your support, we sent the librarians to training workshops, added over 600 new textbooks and children’s books to the library collection, and got some new shelves to store them on. We are so glad to have expanded our collection, because we now have over 1,000 book-hungry library members!
Another highlight of this summer for library members and staff was welcoming many wonderful visitors to Chajul. We hosted several student groups as well as a group of American teachers on our annual service learning trip for educators. The visiting teachers worked closely with our librarians, sharing new activity ideas and hosting a reading and game party for hundreds of little library members. The end of the trip culminated with the teachers hosting a series of workshops on teaching methods for Chajul primary school teachers. The workshops were hosted in the library and we used this opportunity to give all participating teachers a tour of space and its resources. Since schools in Chajul have no books or teaching materials, the community library is an incredible resource for them. Some teachers are now bringing their classes to the library to work with the new books. It is so great to see positive change happening every day!
As we roll into fall, the annual school vacation time in Guatemala, we will be expanding literacy programming beyond Story Hour by introducing new school-break activities such as reading buddies and learn to read clubs. Our other big goal for this fall is to convert an unfinished space adjoining the library building into a quiet study/special activities room. This will allow us to hold more than one activity in the library at once, give teachers a space to work with their classes, and give older students their own space to study.
Your continuing support can make these projects a reality!
Drum roll please...The results are in, and they are outstanding! Thank you so much for helping us reach the goal of our Spring fundraising campaign. We set an ambitious goal of $8,280 and managed to blow it out of the water, raising a total of $8,735 from donations made through GlobalGiving, by mail, and through our website. Thanks to all of you who donated and helped spread the word among your networks, we had the most successful fundraising campaign in LHI history!
After all your work, we've started our work of putting the funds raised to good use for the Saber Sin Límites (Limitless Knowledge) community library. We have purchased art supplies for Story Hour, expanded our young adult and children's book collections, and most importantly, added a new staff member to help kids learn to read those books. Our first priority after the campaign was to hire an assistant librarian. Marilú is the newest member of the ever-growing LHI team, and we are so excited to have her. She has a degree as a preschool teacher from the competitive Socorro High School in Antigua and brings with her a range of skills that we are very excited to add to the library team. She will use her stellar written Spanish language skills to help students with their homework and her outstanding dynamic reading abilities to engage students during Story Hour. She also loves interactive learning and wants to start a drama club in November when students begin their school vacation. We are grateful to have Marilú's energy, patience, and expertise on the team -- and we couldn't have done it without your support!
We are so grateful to have you supporting us to ensure the greatest possible impact on literacy and educational development in Chajul and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.
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