Since 2001, Vaga Lume has donated more than 153 thousand books to community libraries spreaded throughout the Brazilian Amazon. This is a number that shows us that with the union of people who believe in social transformation through reading, it is possible to change realities and boost many dreams. Have you ever stopped to think about the impact that reading and mediation can cause?
That said, we will take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about our Early Childhood project, which seeks to deepen the methodology focused on reading in early childhood – a period in which the brain most needs stimuli, since 90% of brain connections are established by the age of 6 (UNICEF, 2006).
The investments for the project focus on:
Five communities chose to participate in this Early Childhood project:
"We believe that it is important for the child to have contact with reading, as it is the basis for the formation of the child's character, which from pregnancy to the family environment, makes the child receive emotional baggage from this period of development." Maria, a volunteer at the Sobradinho Community, in Barreirinhas (MA)
Your donation helps us to strengthen our 86 libraries, train reading mediators, promotes children development, cultural exchange and strengthen local culture. Donate and shine with Vaga Lume in Amazon.
The project started with a visit by the founders to the Brazilian Amazon and has already impacted over than 100,000 children.
Through a cultural experience, a trip to the giant Amazon, the group of friends Sylvia, Laís, and Fofa began Vaga Lume’s story. In their early 20s, they traveled to Pará state to experience the region’s riches and gifted the communities with a small collection of books.
Transformed by the region’s cultural, social and environmental wealth, the trip in 2001 was more successful than they imagined. The books that were given by Vaga Lume positively impacted people in the region. Vaga Lume could not stop.
In 2002, Vaga Lume's Expedition was immersed in the Brazilian Legal Amazon to implement 22 community libraries to boost children’s potential. After 9 months, the friends returned to São Paulo and received countless letters requesting more books.
Vaga Lume made history.
On October 16th, Vaga Lume completes 20 years of history and reaches significant numbers of its work in rural communities in the Amazon, including indigenous communities and quilombolas - the descendants of enslaved population who escaped plantations: there are 86 community libraries spread over nine states in Brazil. Thanks to your support, more than 138,000 books have been donated, more than 4,800 reading mediators have been trained, totaling more than 890 volunteers and more than 100,000 impacted children, youngsters and adults.
Each library is designed and built together with the communities so that the books and materials meet local demands. A team of educators takes care of the entire process of selecting the book collection and training reading-aloud mediators: the basic conditions are settled for the communities’ engagement.
Vaga Lume’s methodology is based on 5 pillars: book, reading aloud mediation, community management, local culture, and cultural exchange. These five points include providing the necessary infrastructure for the community libraries such as books and shelves; promoting reading aloud mediation training; supporting the community management; treasuring local culture by registering the community traditions; and promoting the cultural exchange between different regions in Brazil. Vaga Lume’s libraries are a space to share knowledge, a space where children and adults from the community have access to information and entertainment.
With your support, we have been able to impact the lives of thousands of children.
Follow Vaga Lume to learn more about our projects:
Instagram: @_vaga_lume_
Facebook: @associacaovagalume/
In recent months, Vaga Lume held two meetings to get closer to those who live in rural communities and municipalities in the Brazilian Amazon.
A tradition in the Net Program since 2015, the Teenager’s Meeting is a moment for the participants from São Paulo to meet. Before the pandemic, it was held in parks or cultural spaces. This year, following the recommendations for social distancing, we held Zoom meetings so that both teenagers in São Paulo and those in the Amazon could participate.
On March 22nd, more than 100 teenagers met to share their knowledge. There was a lot of recitation of poetry, dancing and singing. They showed their talents, introduced themselves and encouraged colleagues who were shy. The Talent Show was a success. According to Manuela:
'In my opinion, the Talent Show is a fun and interactive way to make this meeting, as we get to know a little of each person's personality and hobbies. So, there was always an interesting and curious presentation, getting us more and more involved.'.
And as a high point of the Meeting, the Brazilian influencer, Adriel from “Livros do Dri” instagram, also joined us. He shared his passion for books, literature and the opportunities that reading gave him.
In the following month, we reinvented ourselves once more and held the 1st Vaga Lume Virtual Meeting for Partners and Local Teams with the theme "Library of peoples of the fields, rivers and forests". Special guests, references in literature in Brazil, also participated: the authors Conceição Evaristo, Eliane Potiguara and Itamar Vieira Junior and Professor José Castilho, an activist for Public Policies for reading as a human right. We felt everything up close, hugs, smiles, celebrations, exchanges, everything that makes our network so important.
Even though it was an online event the energy of the network is so strong that it brings the certainty that we are very close, that we have always been and that we always will be. We even forgot, for a moment, the territorial distances. We left once again very hopeful, happy, energized and renewed from the event.
One of Vaga Lume's innovations for 2021 was the donation of pedagogical materialfor children who have limited access to educational activities due to the pandemic scenario. The playbooks made by Vaga Lume’s team and illustrated by a local Amazonian artist are filled with activities about local culture and local environment.
Along with the material, the children also received two handmade books produced by the communities with local legends and histories - 'Cobra Grande' (Big Snake) and 'O canto do Jacurutu' (Great horned owl’s singing) - and a kit with school supplies to carry out their activities. Thus, in addition to encouraging children's reading and writing, we also make it possible to strengthen Amazonian culture.
In total, 900 children received the kit from the communities: Menino Deus (Portel, Pará), Damásio (Guimarães, Maranhão), Surumu (Pacaraima, Roraima), Maracatiara (Ouro Preto do Oeste, Rondônia), João Settlement Batista (Castanhal, Pará), Pesqueiro (Soure, Pará), and Perpétuo Socorro (Tefé, Amazonas).
The volunteers who delivered the playbooks report the children's emotion when receiving them, grateful for the material and for the opportunity to continue learning. For many of them, this is one of the few educational activities that they had access to during the pandemic.
After such a rough and challenging year, we would like to share with you, our global supporters, the actions that Vaga Lume Association took to support rural communities in the Amazon. All this work was done by our donors, partners, employees, and of course, our almost 1,000 volunteers from, and spread through, the Legal Brazilian Amazon.
At the beginning of the year Vaga Lume was ready for a year full of challenges based on an expansion plan to open at least 4 new libraries in Amazon rural communities at the same time that we would continue to manage the existingl 86 community libraries, providing courses, trainings, immersions, meetings and sending 10,000 news books to the region.
But then… the pandemic arrived, the world rapidly changed, people could not get together, get close, be together without a mask, no touch before sanitizers. And, of course, our work, just like everything else, was hit by this big world issue. Yet, Vaga Lume responded.
We established safety rules and work conditions for employees and volunteers, at the same time that we had to close the libraries so it would not contribute to the virus dissemination. We acted as fast as we could and collected thousands of humanitary aid donations to send to the rural communities in the Amazon and we adapted: creating and optimizing ways to communicate better with our beneficiaries and volunteers in the region.
We have learned even more about the potential of the virtual connection and because of that we now have a pilot project to take internet connection to two communities in Tefé, a city located in Amazonas state. Besides all of that we also adapted our volunteer trainings to an online format and, since the libraries were closed, this year the books were individually sent to children, in their homes, so they could read and travel the magical world of literature without getting exposed.
Now, in consideration to your support we would like to bring you Our achievements in 2020:
Humanitarian aid delivered to Amazonian communities:
Books and Library items:
Trainings and Meetings
And here we are now. After all of this we can only thank you for your support and wish you a very happy and healthy 2021!
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