Help Build School Libraries in Rural Guatemala

Rebeca was thrilled to receive an invitation to an International Book Day celebration at Patzilin Abaj Primary School earlier this month. An educator herself, she enjoys any opportunity to celebrate learning. But she was especially excited to see the students and teachers at Patzilin Abaj bring their library to life.

Two years ago, Rebeca and the rest of her Pathways to Literacy team started their work at Patzilin Abaj. They have worked with school administrators to build a library from the ground up. They have filled it with books and delivered electronic tablets loaded with educational games and literacy-building tools. They have selected and trained a librarian and led professional development workshops for teachers, introducing them to the many ways they can use the library in their classes. There's still a year left before the school begins to manage the project independently, but the faculty of Patzilin Abaj have already done a lot to integrate the library into the lives of their students.

The school’s International Book Day celebration certainly put that hard work on display. Students, teachers, and administrators worked together to perform dramatizations of two books that can be found in the school library.

The first performance was a dramatic rendition of a classic fairy tale: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”. Students dressed as trees, flowers, and woodland creatures filled the school’s large outdoor multipurpose space, transforming it into the forest where Snow White escapes her evil stepmother to live with the seven dwarves. School librarian Clara Eugenia played the role of the evil queen quite convincingly!

The second play was based on the children’s book Un Elefante Buscando Amigos (“An Elephant Looks for Friends”). In the story, an elephant struggles to make friends with the other animals in the jungle, until he finds friendship in the unlikeliest of places. While the other animals complain about how big and slow he is, the ant accepts the elephant for who he is despite their differences.

The other students watched the performances attentively. One of the teachers narrated aloud into a microphone, reading his role straight from the pages of each book! A few parents had gathered to watch too, smiling and laughing at the performers’ antics. At the end of the performances, Principal Caín addressed the whole audience. “Thank you for coming to today’s event, and congratulations to all of our performers,” he said. “And most importantly: you can find both of these books in our school library, so if you liked what you saw, go and check them out today!”

By bringing these books to life through performance, the teachers of Patzilin Abaj paved a pathway to literacy for their students. The next year of their collaboration with Pueblo a Pueblo will no doubt inspire an even deeper love of reading, writing and storytelling among students at Patzilin Abaj!

Links:

• Pathways to Literacy at Pueblo a Pueblo

Our team is ready to start a brand new school library this year...and we need your help!

When Pathways to Literacy Project Consultant Rebeca Sosof started her search for a new partner school, she didn’t look far from Santiago Atitlán. “I want to make sure we are doing what we can to support public schools close to home,” she says. When she contacted our institutional partners at the Guatemalan Ministry of Education for recommendations, they suggested she reach out to the principal of Tzanchaj No. 2 Primary School.

Rebeca was eager to partner with Tzanchaj; Pueblo a Pueblo already has a strong working relationship with the school. Pueblo a Pueblo has collaborated with the school to establish an organic school garden, lead healthy cooking classes, carry out sanitation improvements, and support local students with scholarships.“This is an opportunity to provide students with integrated support,” Rebeca explains. “The new library will complement the effects of the other projects to give Tzanchaj students access to a high-quality education.” The project would benefit all 252 students—preschoolers to sixth graders—who attend Tzanchaj No. 2.

When Rebeca contacted the school, Principal María Magdalena Damián Tziná responded that she would be thrilled to collaborate on creating a library—the first library ever at Tzanchaj No. 2! Magdalena invited Rebeca to the school for a visit and showed her the office that they will transform into a library with Pueblo a Pueblo’s help. 

"My teachers and I are willing to work hard to build a better school for our students—even on our own time, even on a volunteer basis," she told Rebeca. "We've done it before, we're doing it now, and we'll do it again. Our biggest problem is that as much as we ask, we don't receive the funding we need from the government."

During Phase 1 of the project, Pueblo a Pueblo will provide the school with the resources it needs to build a brand-new library. Our Pathways to Literacy team will deliver a set of reading materials, carefully picked to be appropriate for the range of ages and reading levels among Tzanchaj students. From there, our team will help the school train a librarian and work with teachers to integrate the new library resources into their teaching.

But first, we need your support. “Our partnership with the school is all in place,” says Rebeca. “Now we just need funding to get started.” Your donation of $50 puts ten books on the shelf at this brand-new library. Help Pueblo a Pueblo build Pathways to Literacy at Tzanchaj No. 2 Primary School!

Links:

• Pathways to Literacy at Pueblo a Pueblo