Beyond el Campo: Growing a Grassroots Library in Rural Costa Rica

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Vital Stats

Cait S

Amherst, MA
  • people helped1600
  • People Doing It 20

The Problem

Santa Cruz de León Cortés is a small coffee-farming village located in rural Costa Rica. Over 90% of the families in this community make their living from coffee and avocado farming. Due to the serious lack of economic resources, educational opportunities are scarce; Elementary and high school aged students struggle through school without books and academic support. There is a significant high-school drop out rate and the majority of the students who drop out end up working the fields, often never leaving Santa Cruz. We are currently working together the community to build and set up a public library. So far, the library has over 800 books and is run by a local family. Since its opening in mid July, the library has served as a life-changing center for peace and unprecedented learning. We hope to continue growing the library and support its long-term sustainability so that this incredible community of hard-working people will be able to enjoy the basic right to education and learning.

Plan of Action

The library, in its temporary space, has been opened. We also ran a 2-week summer literacy camp in July. This being said, there is a lot to do. The Santa Cruz library committee received a grant from the Guias/Scouts movement of Costa Rica to build a two-story library. The construction will begin in January, with the help of Beyond el Campo volunteers and local help. We are currently in the stages of gathering books, Spanish language books of all levels, for the library, as well as school materials, craft materials, and an other educational materials to go in the library. Local partners in Costa Rica are coordinating a training session, so that women from the village will be learning from trained librarians about how to run a library. By the end of 2011, we hope to see the new building finalized, the collection over 1,500 books, and school materials available to all students currently attending school in Santa Cruz.

For More Info

http://www.readertoreader.org/elcampo.html
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Education Inequalities

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