Guatemala

J545.1P Child Aid, Guatemala

Guatemala has the lowest literacy rate in Latin America. Through project J545.1P – Reading for Life, Guatemala Child Aid gives indigenous and marginalized children in five rural communities the motivation, structure and resources to learn to read. We do this by establishing integrated, long-term reading programs in the communities’ libraries and schools. We help each community transform its library into a community reading centre, and train the librarian to become a catalyst for literacy. We provide each library with hundreds of quality, Spanish-language children’s books and help the librarian create book lending programs.

For most children in these communities, this is the first time they’ve ever been able to bring home a book. Child Aid's literacy trainers help the librarians connect with local teachers to coordinate reading programs in classrooms, effectively helping children learn to read and succeed in school. This effectively creates greater opportunities for some of the world’s poorest children.