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The road less traveled requires a reliable set of wheels
The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca’s mobile project visits 39 schools on a rotating basis to allow students to check out books and bring them home with them. The mobile project has expanded its reach and now travels to communities from Rivas down to the Costa Rican border to deliver books. Some communities are situated near excellent roads, while others are very rural and require an adventurous vehicle and driver to make it to the school.
Last year, the library staff and HJH board realized that the long-time mobile truck was beginning to fail and needed to be replaced with a reliable, much newer, truck to continue to deliver books. With the help of a few very generous donors, we began a fundraiser to replace the old truck, La Niña. We knew we needed more support to make our fundraising goals and we were able to collaborate with the organization Random Acts to make the new truck a reality.
Random Acts matched the funds we had initially raised for a new Toyota Hi-Lux. The new truck is red and we named it Randy el Rojo in honor of Random Acts’ generosity. Our partnership with Random Acts has allowed us to continue servicing the many communities that rely on our service to put books in the hands of children and spread the love of reading. |
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2023 Donation Receipts are Enroute
We would like to extend our deepest and heartfelt appreciation for each and every one of the donors who helped us through 2023. We ended the year strong, and your love and support for our mission shone through. Donation receipts will be making their way to you via email or postal mail shortly if they have not arrived already. It is impossible to thank you enough but Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!
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2nd Annual January Book Extravaganza Trip! |
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Pictured left to right: Mary, Richard, Jane, Stephanie, and Ingred with the suitcases containing books! |
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This January Jane, accompanied by book bringers and volunteers Ingred, Stephanie, Mary, Jill, and Natalie, brought over 700lbs of books to the library. These books, along with thousands of others, were donated to us by Georgia Crowell from her bookstore in Cincinnati, Ohio. We brought books to refresh our satellite libraries which provide standing collections of books in 13 schools that our mobile project also visits so students have expanded access to books in between mobile visits. Katia hand selected books that she would like to keep in the collection at the main library and we brought a collection of young adult and teen chapter books to begin the process of expanding the mobile project to older school children. |
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The summer mobile project comes to an end and a new school year begins
The Nicaraguan school year operates from February-November with a “summer break” taking place from mid November-January. This year the library staff brought summer activities to 10 mobile project communities. The summer mobile project provided the opportunity to read a book, prompt students to ask questions about the book, participate in craft activities, and check out books. Of course, we had to bring piñatas too!
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Norman and Maria Paula with a group of summer mobile project students ready to break in the piñata! |
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The mobile project resumed visits to schools this week, and the excitement of the new school year was palpable. The collection of books has been refreshed and students have several new titles to choose from. |
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Volunteer Frank reads over one of the new selections with the students! |
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Mobile Project volunteer and Advisory Board Member, Susana, checks out some of the first books for this school year. |
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Volunteer Pamela Martin Diaz is an early childhood literacy consultant who brought her expertise in Early Childhood learning to San Juan del Sur.
She is the author of books published by ALA: Storytimes for Everyone-Developing Young Children’s Language and Literacy and Early Literacy Storytimes @ your Library-Partnering with Caregivers for Success.
She is an early literacy trainer and advocate for young children. Her practice and workshops are inspired by her belief that library staff can help improve childhood educational outcomes by influencing the adults in children’s lives to embrace the joy of sharing books with children. It is through these intentional interactions between adults and children around books and conversations that the foundation upon which a child who will be able to read with understanding is built.
In January, early literacy specialist Pamela Martin Diaz volunteered her expertise to design activities that correspond with a book that our staff will use to provide enrichment activities in our library and out on the mobile project. Pamela went out to one of our summer mobile project sites and coordinated activities with students that allowed them to experiment with musical instruments and use their imaginations to customize their own crafts. She also met with a group of local teachers to train them in techniques for guiding learning pathways for younger students and implementing different classroom strategies. |
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Pamela Martin-Diaz in the library with a collection of books
she selected to create activities for. |
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We are so grateful for the time Pamela dedicated to us while she was in San Juan del Sur. We are excited to see where the staff will take the ideas they learned from Pamela and how they will implement their new skills to help young learners engage with reading. The video below shows some of the fun and new experiences students had during Pamela’s visit. |
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A student with his chicken – decorated the way he imagined it should be! |
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VOSH Eye Doctors visit San Juan del Sur for their 20th year offering critical services
San Jaun del Sur hosted the VOSH eye doctors and students again this year so they could provide much needed eyecare services to thousands of people. Over the span of 4 days, doctors and students assessed eye health and provided new prescription glasses to those in need. For several years we have supported VOSH’s efforts and offered our in-country knowledge to help them provide these services. This year, they made sure that all of our library staff and the staff at Hotel Villa Isabella had their eyes assessed.
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VOSH volunteers on site in San Juan del Sur providing eye exams. |
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Our lending system is scalable and replicable
The HJH Libraries for all Foundation created the Library in a Box Recipient Program to allow other groups to create their own lending system and community centers. Over the years, we have helped several groups create their own lending library systems throughout Central America.
In January, Conny and Åke stumbled upon the library in San Juan del Sur while visiting Nicaragua to see family members located in central Nicaragua. Conny wanted to bring the joy of reading and books to her family’s community. Within 24 hours, Conny had secured two passionate employees to oversee the lending program.
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Åke and Conny with their new seed collection of books! |
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They purchased our lending system and a seed collection of books to bring back with them and made plans for their employees to come to San Juan del Sur for further training on how to use the system and to learn more about the library in San Juan del Sur. Last week, their new library team arrived at the library ready to learn! Edwin taught them how to use the library in a box system, Katia showed them how we create crafts that correlate to a book we read, Wiston gave a tour of the 3D printing center and Norman taught them how we categorize different types of books and organize them in the library. |
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Edwin showing the new librarians how to use the Library in a Box system. |
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Wiston showing the group how to make 3D printed solar lanterns. |
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Conny and Åke hope to expand their program in the future to offer a computer lab and potentially sponsor scholarships for students. We are so excited to welcome them to our growing group of Library in a Box Recipients in Nicaragua and because their new staff experienced mentoring in San Juan del Sur, we know this assures a successful start! We wish them all the best on their new adventure of bringing books to their community. |
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The new librarians showing off a collection of books. |
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3D Printing Program featured in The American Library Association International Leads Newsletter:
In 2021, we received the American Library Association’s International Relations Roundtable Mission enhancement grant. The project, which was ongoing for the course of two years, allowed Wiston to create a 3D printing course that allowed students to learn about this emerging technology and use their skills to create 3D objects. We were able to provide two sets of pilot courses for eight middle school students for Wiston to perfect his curriculum before opening it up to 22 high school students. The program had a strong focus on allowing young women to take this course and gain exposure to stem technologies, and a total of 21 students out of 30 in the entire program were female.
Click here to read the full article on the grant in the American Library Association International Leads newsletter.
Wiston has continued to offer this course and has started teaching a new group of students thanks to a generous donor who sponsored another round of classes during our Giving Tuesday campaign. For $300, we can offer this valuable course to 6 students, with no cost to them. Our 2024 classes will include workshops on creating the Engineering Brightness Solar Lamps we featured in one of our newsletters last year. |
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The Engineering Brightness lanterns Wiston will be teaching students to make during this upcoming set of 3D printing classes. |
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A note from JaneMay soon be titled Notes from Us!
The book-laden trip to San Juan del Sur in January included The HJH Foundation’s Vice President Jill Gramling and I have invited Jill to share a note for this first Newsletter illustrating our delight and encouragement for the amazing surprises of 2024 that have already happened. We were both delighted to discover who our retired librarian volunteer really was when we met Pamela Martin-Diaz. Her energetic sharing of expertise felt like exactly the right send off into 2024.
Jane |
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A Note From Jill
Jane and I are just back from our trip to Nicaragua. Every time I go to San Juan del Sur, I am amazed at how much has changed since I first started volunteering at the library 12 years ago. This time, I was most surprised by the larger convenience stores that have moved into town supplying everything from goat cheese to Costco sized shampoos. It seems like almost anything is at your fingertips now but alas there are still some things you simply have to go to Managua for or you will just have to do without.
Just as I have watched San Juan del Sur grow up, I have also watched the library grow up. We have been through a few moves, jumped over our fair share of hurdles, celebrated many milestones and several huge accomplishments. Just like the local stores in town, we have adapted our programs to fit the needs of our growing community. We have transitioned the library from a reading room and computer lab to a blooming community center the people San Juan del Sur can count on.
It was so clear when we walked through the library doors in January that the library staff are also growing and blossoming. Each of them have taken on significant new responsibilities and are challenging themselves to learn new skills and improve our programs to better serve their community. Our volunteers continue to bring their unique skills to our library and breathe new life into our programs. The board members have also stepped up to the plate, bringing new and innovative ideas to continue the success of our programs. 2024 is flying by and we are set up to have a spectacular year putting books in the hands of children.
Thank you so much for following along with our work, joining our forces when needed, and standing alongside us as we navigate this new year. We are so happy that you are here to support us in all our endeavors.
With our deepest gratitude for your continuing support and eagerness for what lies in the future.
Jane & Jill |
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We are registered as Hester J. Hodgdon Libraries for All. Please donate today with the PayPal or JustGiving buttons above OR by check made payable to:
HJH Programs
1716 Del Norte Ave.
Loveland, CO 80538 |
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