Provide Quality Education to 15000 Amazon Children

On March 8, 2002, three women set out on a journey that would change access to books across the Brazilian Amazon. 

Three women set out on this expedition: Sylvia Guimarães, Maria Teresa “Fofa” Meinberg and Laís Fleury.

Carrying books and dreams, they traveled for 10 months through the 09 states of the Legal Amazon.  

That journey became known as the First Vaga Lume Expedition. In those months traveling across the Amazon, they helped create 21 community libraries and trained hundreds of local reading mediators: community members who would ensure that books became living tools for imagination, learning, and connection. 

When they returned to São Paulo, dozens of handwritten letters were waiting for them. They came from neighboring communities that had heard about the libraries. The message was always the same: they also dreamed of having a library. 

Those letters made one thing clear: the journey could not end there. 

Almost 25 years later, that journey is still growing. Today, Vaga Lume promotes access to books and reading in 102 communities across 23 municipalities in all nine states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Since 2001, more than 111,000 children and adolescents have gained access to books and the opportunity to imagine new futures. 

One of those children was Débora Fernandes, from Quilombo Bom-Viver. As a young girl, she spent hours in her community library and volunteered to read stories to younger children. Years later, that love of books helped lead her to law school. 

Reflecting on the importance of the library, Débora shared: 

“In the past, elders say they only had textbooks and books about fair-skinned princesses… they couldn’t see themselves in those books. Today we recognize ourselves in the books we receive.” 

This International Women’s Month, we celebrate the courage and vision of the women who began this journey, and the many women and community leaders who continue it every day across the Amazon. 

With your support, Vaga Lume can continue expanding access to books, creating new community libraries, and empowering children to imagine brighter futures. 

Your donation helps place books in the hands of children who might otherwise grow up without them — continuing the journey that began with three women and now reaches communities across the Amazon. 

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We have reached the final chapters of 2025 with many reasons to celebrate. Nothing we have built would be possible without you—who support Vaga Lume. This story is collective, and you are part of it. 

Actions in the field 

Throughout the year, hundreds of volunteers continued to bring access to books and reading through listening, presence, an care. To further strengthen this vibrant network, we trained new reading mediators. 

Even at a distance, we stayed connected. At the Virtual Volunteer Gathering, we explored together into reflections and exchanges about books, reading, and territory, reaffirming the power of meeting and dialogue as the foundation of our work. 

We also celebrated the completion of library renovations, ensuring accessibility and enhancing reading spaces so they can  be ever more welcoming to their communities. 

New libraries: seeds that keep growing 

The year 2025 was also a year of planting new seeds. Three rural communities in Uarini (AM) and two in Barreirinhas (MA) received new Vaga Lume libraries, expanding access to books and reading in territories where such access remains a challenge. 

Today, we are a network of 97 community libraries and five new reading spaces currently in development. 

To nourish this network, we curated a new collection in which Indigenous, Black, and Amazonian voices took center stage. Each Vaga Lume library received 150 new titles, strengthening the diversity and representativeness of the books that reach the communities. 

Cultural exchange: bridges between territories 

The Net Program continued to bring together young people from the Amazon and São Paulo through a powerful cultural exchange. Letters, conversations, discoveries, and dreams crossed paths throughout the year, with environmental themes as a guiding thread. This sensitive exchange strengthens bonds, broadens horizons, and inspires new ways of seeing the present and the future. 

COP30: voices from the Amazon in dialogue with the world 

In the year when the Amazon took center stage in global attention, Vaga Lume created and occupied spaces so that community voices could be heard during COP30, the UN Climate Conference. 

Young participants from the Net Program in São Paulo took part in a UN simulation—an inspiring exercise in imagining possible futures. 

During Amazon Week, we mobilized communities through reading circles, dialogues, and actions focused on sustainability and care for the territory. 

In Belém, young people from Vaga Lume libraries participated in a panel on climate challenges at the Casa das ONGs and marched for climate justice alongside activists and Indigenous peoples. 

We also celebrated the opening of a new reading space in Boa Vista, Castanhal (PA): a library built with certified wood and equipped with solar panels donated by 3e Soluções. 

During COP30, we launched the manifesto “Voices of Youth for the Amazon,” created through an exchange between young people from the Vaga Lume libraries in Castanhal and teenagers from the United States who nurture strong emotional ties with Brazil. 

Moving forward together 

Everything Vaga Lume builds is born from the meeting of many hands, those who read, those who donate, those who share, and those who dedicate time, care, and  dreams. 

Our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to every donor who continues by our side, helping build pathways toward a reading Amazon.