Animate Leyendo – Animate Escribiendo

Project description
This project is for children and youth to help them develop an interest in reading and writing and introduce them to the wonderful world of books through which they will be exposed to fantasies, new ideas, values etc.

The project started in 2000 when we observed the weak reading skills of the children and young adults in the area where the Center is located, specially of the children in poor rural villages. Since then we have done a variety of activities related to improving their reading and writing skills.

Recently the project started to take more shape thanks to funding received from CENAL (National Book Center). At the moment the project is being implemented in 2 villages: la Guairita, 75 families, and Madre Vieja, 60 families. In each village one mother has a small library of children´s books lent to her by the Center. Once a week she goes door to door, talks to the children and to the adults in the house who read to their children and have them choose another book. Every month we do a collective activity with all the children in the village which include story reading, painting, drama etc.

Funding requested for this project:
We want to expand the program to the school of another village: Los Galpones, 150 families, involving hereby the teachers and the parents. The center will facilitate story books to the teachers from preschool up to sixth grade and give workshops about the tremendous benefits of reading aloud to young children as well as older children. The program will include drawing, drama and opportunities for children to write and illustrate their own books.

The project includes one facilitator who will give the workshops and supervises the teachers; material for the workshops; material for the art activities and books for the library.