Solidariety 4 Flexal 2

It's time for a miracle

2006-04-10T20:20:00.000-03:00

I don't even know what to post.
The library has been closed down for undetermined time.
All things are here - it is just not working at the moment.
Reasons?
Lack of personal strentgh and external support, mainly.
And I don't mean money. For once I have it.
Today the children spent the morning calling me to ask about their communitary school.
Because their teachers went to a barbecue at the beach.
I'd say "kill them all teachers", but then someone would say "she says that because she's a muslim".

I am human, and this hypocrisy is killing me.

One okay - thousands to go!

2006-01-11T12:15:00.000-02:00

And then it all comes down to this: God is constantly watching over us, whether we are aware of it, or not.
___________________________________________________

Yesterday Doug and I went to the paper depot to buy his school material. Unfortunately we could not savour the moment throughly - I had to run other errands and time was against us. However, it was all good.

He could not decide on anything, except a 400 pages notebook. I wonder how heavy that must feel for a 27kg, 12 y.o. boy. Other than that, I had to make all the choices. I tried to balance it by buying a sports pen holder here, a cool yet non-expensive set of pens here - I reckon I could have chosen just anything, and he'd be more than pleased.

I was so glad when the first thing he said after arriving back at the org was "it is a pity that aunt Isabel is not here to see my school things..." He pulls the right strings, I tell ya... He knows she will be proud and encourage him, as he earned every bit of it.

Plus, I don't know if I mentioned it before, nor have I enough time to check now, but we all know how fond children are with coins, so everyday Doug dropped by he earned himself a 0,50 BRL - the equivalent of 0,23 USD. So by the time we arrived at the depot, he had some cash of his own to buy whatever he wanted.

He picked a drawing book.

I was speechless. No fancy pen, nothing to make anyone else jealous, nothing to show off. A drawing book. I have no words to express my gratitude for this boy's character. May God allow him to grow wiser and wiser. A child, still. But what a child!
__________________________________________

Thank to all friends who helped with prayers, good thoughts and donations so Douglas could be in school. I could mention a few names, Oxaene, Roland, Igiko, and my best friend and counselour down under. All of them gave their best to make it happen, and I am so grateful for that.

__________________________________
This is just the beginning, God willing.
There is too much more to be done.

For all that, in Arabic, we say:
Alhamdulillah.
Praise be to God.

Douglas, Mr. Handy

2006-01-06T10:12:00.000-02:00

After a long while, where I am again.
I reckon I should have written it all a long time ago, but-
Well, of course there are "buts", or I'd have it all done before.

Anyway...

Douglas, you should all know him by now (in this picture next to his brother, Rodrigo), he is our Mr. Handy.

Two weeks ago he told me he'd have to quit school because his father could not afford his school material. I asked him then if he'd mind helping me around the house with library business and house management, in a fair (in my opinion) exchange for his school gadgets.

He smiled. I took that for an "okay".

I'll update you all again soon. Hopefully.
Take care ye all.

Cheers!

Nearly 300 books ready

2005-11-24T22:57:00.000-02:00

...and a lot of extra work to do.
When christmas approaches I get a handful of requests for cards, calendars and such. For this reason, I have been working less at the library.
Tomorrow, at 10am - this, if I can stand still after 72 hours of work and only 10 of sleep - Rodrigo has reading classes. I can stop for half an hour - Rodrigo is too eager to learn. Saying no to him somehow is not an option.

_____________________

Rodrigo's brother, Douglas, told me yesterday he won't attend school any more. He said his father told him he can't afford school material. Yeah, I know, it is not that expensive... for you, and maybe for me. But for a father who has 5 children in school ages, might be heavy.

If you feel like helping, write me and I'll send the account where you can deposit, or the address to where you can send your parcel.

NOTE: This history will repeat itself a thousand times before the end of the year. Most kids / parents can't afford paying for school material. If you can spare some change, help out. If you cannot help 10 kids, help one. It is wonderful just the same.

By the way, if you can't help in cash, service or material donation, you can always pray.

259... 260... 261 books and counting!!

2005-11-12T03:12:00.000-02:00

We received another donation of books, this time about Law. It is wonderful that we have so many subjects for reference already! Physics, Electronics, Mechanics, Law, Languages... Who'd think that in such a short time we'd be so well provided?

Today I went to the big town to buy some more cataloguing material. We had ran out of everything, from adhesive tape to inside-envelopes! Now I can go on. Tomorrow, Saturday, was supposed to be my day off but for some reason it changed into "kids day". So be it. in less than 6 hours they'll be knocking and yelling at my door to... well, just to be here.

A word of appreciation to my friends who help me to remain steady and faithful: Mieke (eternal teacher), Cris (and the arab funky bunch), Luiz (I am so glad you are back), Jack (you did read it!), Flora (and Dani and Renato) and my sister Isabel. I love you all.

38 days later, and we have ready 156 books!

2005-11-08T02:35:00.000-02:00

Yes, the cataloguing work is going slow but steady. Today I had the help of my nephew Thomas during the afternoon, courtesy of YWAM and his father who allowed him to change some hard work at the ranch under the sun for a couple of hours in my living room under my fan.

The section Literature for Children is ready, and so is Foreign Literature. To finish the Portuguese Literature, we still have a handful to go. Most books left are now school books, which tomorrow I'll separate into piles per subject.

Other than that, just ended up having a great conversation with a new friend made online. Hi, Jack! I hope you read this. Thank you for caring about the world as a whole. We are all part of it.

People, remember, your world may seem okay today, but the earth gets dry a drop a time. Let us change a few things while we can. Let us try and change. Well, let us try.

Update November 1st

2005-11-01T23:28:00.000-02:00

This is my house. The library functions at the room to your left.

I am considering changing the pink for a leaf green. What do you think?

A long time has passed since I last posted.

The latest news are:

1. 106 books! The Library has been inactive as a school / pre-school given the fact that I had been busy cataloguing all the material donated. So far, 106 books are already available for borrowing - in a way that library books are supposed to be, cards and all. I had no idea the Dewey cataloguing system could be that simple after all. But, when you have done the same thing 106 times, most things become simple.

2. The Library has donated school material for another child in need. This time it was Lucas, a 12 y.o. boy. Since I moved here I regarded him as the smartest boy, and so he is. His mother suffers of a disease that has made her legs swollen a lot. No shoes fit her feet, and for this reason Lucas has become her legs. His absences at school are many since he has to work a few days a week but, still, his development at school are worthy investing in. If you feel like helping Dna. Eva and her family with food donation, so that Lucas can work less and study more, please, let me know. (Just for the record, 5kg rice, 1l soy oil, 1kg beans, 1/2kg coffee and 2kg sugar (enough for a family of 4 a week) costs +- US$ 8.00 (R$ 16,00).)

3. Documentation. I have been getting in touc with a politician named Ailton Pereira. He works for the city hall. The reasons, whoever, are not politics. I was told that he was the head of the community district association, and I aim to gather the leaders of Flexal II in most areas (businessmen, housewives, fishermen, pharmacist and so on) for a meeting where I'll introduce the Library - and then generate a document with these leaders signatures alledging support (not financial) for the project which will be then taken to the City Hall in order to start the process of documenting our Org. Mr. Ailton, however, has not proved himself willing to help. I will keep on insisting for the next couple of weeks.

4. The work with Library has forced me to a halt on the other activities. I have stopped translating books and writing articles - not actually because I lack time to do all of them, but because of the brainwork required. Also, I have given in to the change of becoming an academic writer, as I cannot do all the researched needed online. I am usually too tired at the end of the day to google for a paper.

5. Personal news. I have started walking everyday around the neighbourhood (mainly because I was feeling heavier for working in a desk most days a week), and realized how many people I don't know yet. I believe this will prove itself a wonderful opportunity to make new acquaintances and to learn more about the people (I believe) we aim to help. Also, at least one of the weekdays, I gather orders from our lady friends and neighbours, and extend my walk to Flexal I, our nextdoor district, where I shop for all of us.

Well, this is it for now. This week I am once again guest teacher at Gileade, where I teach about earthquakes. Not a good subject to talk about since December 26 last year. It is 1pm, and I just had lunch while working at the accountability of Ywam.

Cheers!

Back at last!

2005-10-12T20:44:00.000-03:00

I just got back earlier today from my home town.
I apologize to those who waited for the promised articles and simply saw me vanishing for two weeks.
I left all of a sudden, and came back all the same.
So, again, my apologies to those I left in São Paulo without a proper goodbye. :)

NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! NEWS! NEWS!
from São Paulo - Cariacica Axis (SPCA)

- Over 200 books donated!
People were so open handed I had to leave books behind for a near future trip, God willing.

- 5 Computer parts giveaway!
They do not make a whole working computer yet, but we look forward to more pieces! Remember, we can fix them!

- Cash for games, books and more!
Friends also donated cash during special barbecue and other gatherings, with which we bought many children's educative games, and more books!

- Music lessons!
Thanks to the donations, 10 children will now have the opportunity to have music lessons each with a flute of their own!

- God knows just what we need!
The first donation, in the very same day I arrived, was a hair cutting machine! Amazing? You tell me, eh...

2 + 5 = We have now 7 books

2005-09-25T23:04:00.000-03:00

We received a donation of 5 books. :) The Student Encyclopaedia, 5 volumes. It is a great resource for research!

Articles of the week

2005-09-19T16:44:00.000-03:00

1. On a 7 y.o. girl's behaviour.
2. A 5th grader who can't read numbers?
3. Children will always come... and go.
4. Some bad things happen for our own good. Accepting them, though... Phoey!
5. Imagine if all you could see were a blurred world.
6. Lice, lice and more lice!

We need books! How about saving coins in a jar? We appreciate it! :)

Expect for the posts above for the coming week. Thank you :)

1. On a 7 y.o. girl's behaviour.

The class started smoothly. As the older boys had already finished Math 2 and Drawings 1 and 2, I allowed them to play dominoes. Mariana, whoever, still had a lot to go. She is not good at writing, and her mathematics skills are nil. Even though it’d be better for her to do some more useful and less entertaining activity, I opted for drawing.

As the boys played counting numbers with the help of their fingers, I noticed that Mariana was painting her drawing in the worst manner possible. When I see a child doing that, I ask her about her references. "Have you ever seen a boy with a blue face in real life?" That usually works, and the child suddenly feels like doing it the right way. Mariana, however, said "yes".

That was just the beginning. Before the end of the hour, she had made the boys nervous by hiding one of their pieces (what made their game truncate as there is only one piece for each combination), and made me nervous by challenging me in everything I told her.

I had never done this before, but I thought I’d better try it out now, or I’d end up with a child that would never respect me. I told one of the boys, Lucas – her brother – that she not be allowed to participate of the classes again before I could talk to her mother. Then everybody had snack, and went home.

Two days later, Mariana shows up with Lucas and without her mother. I reminded her about what I had said on the previous class, and Lucas went home to call his mom.

Dna. Luiza is just like most mothers in here. I’d say they are mothers by accident. They have no idea on how to treat their children, or what is best for them, but – thank God – they feel obliged to feed them and give them a roof. No quality whatsoever, though. The minimum seems more than enough.

I went straight to the point. "What makes Mariana act like that?"

After a few complaints about life, Dna. Luzia told me that Mariana had seizures when she was a toddler, and that the doctor ordered her Gardenal. However, after a while, Dna. Luzia stopped administering the med. The reason? She could not tell. Maybe the doses Mariana had were already enough.

I wanted to crush Dna. Luzia against the wall and ask her "how could you...?", but then I remembered my mother did the same thing. When I was 6, I had a seizure, and the doc administered me Gardenal. Two pills a day, forever. And my mother, one day, two years later, decided that it was enough, and stopped with the med.

I relaxed. If it happened with me, and I survived, then there was a way out. Maybe some extra attention, maybe some extra care. Her life was already too miserable for me to make it worse. In the end, we opted for special private classes. We can make her feel miserable, or we can make her feel special.

Let us try and make her feel special, then.

Info on the children attending the Library

2005-09-13T01:27:00.000-03:00

I am on the process of collecting pictures of all children to post in another blog so that you can get to know them better. Meanwhile (I have to wait for my sister to come back from a conference with her computer - which is where I had been working before getting "Grandpa" - my P166 MMX), where is a more comprehensive list on the kids who have already attended to classes.

As people here tend to get married within families [as in old times], a similar surname does not necessarily mean a close family connection.

Gabriela Soares
10 y.o. - 4 siblings
4th grade - lives with her mother

Tiago Nascimento Xavier
7 y.o. - 5 siblings
1st grade - lives with parents

Rodrigo Nascimento Xavier
10 y.o. - 5 siblings
2nd grade - lies with his aunt

Bruno Rosa da Silva
10 y.o. - 4 siblings
lives with his mother

João Vitor Alves Hilário
8 y.o - 6 siblings
2nd grade - lives with parents

Adrieli Mota
12 y.o. - 4 siblings
5th grade - lives with her mother

Gabrieli Gomes Garcia
6 y.o. - only child
Pre-school - lives with her mother

Gabriel Rosa da Silva
6 y.o. - 4 siblings
Pre-school - lives with his mother

Ester Sobrinho
7 y.o. - 3 siblings
lives with mother in another neighbourhood

Daniela Rosa Silva
8 y.o. - 4 siblings
1st grade - lives with her mother

Caio Mota
7 y.o. - 4 siblings
1st grade - lives with his mother

Marcia Gabi
5 y.o. - only child
Pre-school - lives with parents

Mariana Cruz Mota
8 y.o. - 2 siblings
1st grade - lives with mother

Thais da Silva Pinto
8. y.o - 5 siblings
lives with mother

Rheilener da Silva Nascimento
7 y.o. - 5 siblings
lives with mother

Leonardo Penha de Paula
11 y.o. - 4 siblings
lives with mother

Andressa Mota
10 y.o. - 6 siblings
3rd grade - lives with mother

Lucas Santos de Oliveira
12 y.o. - 5 siblings
3rd grade - lives with mother

Rodrigo da Silva Pinto Cruz
12 y.o. - 6 siblings
4th grade - lives with mother

Lucas Ribeiro Graça
1o y.o. - 3 siblings
4th grade - lives with parents

Poliana Soares Oliveira
10 y.o. - 5 siblings
3rd grade - lives with mother

Update on the week

2005-09-11T12:35:00.000-03:00

Douglas and Rodrigo: They are brothers, and have other 3 siblings; they are 12 and 10 years old, respectively.

September 9 - First shift:
Tiago was our master painter. Rodrigo and Leonardo attended to the Math 1 classes. Leo finds math amusing, to the point that he was the first to enroll at the chess classes. On this day he learned to place the pieces on the chess board. A natural. Rodrigo has difficulties concentrating, and this is one of the reasons why I am taking him to the doc. He prefers Reading classes than Math. Well, most people do.

September 9 - Second shift:
Gabriela, Daniela and Gabriel are all family. Math is not only a challenge the the last two, but a monster. Gabriela loves it. Dani and Gabs seem to have majored in Mess& Fuss. Whenever Gabriela colours a drawing, she writes God is Faithful on it. Indeed, Gabriela, indeed.

September 10:
My day "off". I work in different projects.

September 11:
Classes in the afternoon only. I already came across with a few of the boys asking to have the library open. I have given my word to make some translations, though, and to prepare a speech on Islam and Community Work for graduating psycho-analysts so I had to deny. May God help me. Eight children are scheduled for 2pm.

On Adrieli's school material

2005-09-11T12:24:00.000-03:00

On the last post, on the 7th of Setember, Adrieli made a special request. She is the girl in the picture above. Imagine that beautiful smile shining in the library when she received the school material ;) . A huge thank you for all the friends who cooperated.

Now, something else about her: last month she fell in a sewer hole, and broke her front teeth (and femur). For a while she was too ashamed to smile and speak but now she is cool with it. Nevertheless, it has affected her speech, as the air comes out through the wrong via. It'd be awesome to be able to fix that.

Independence Day

2005-09-07T13:06:00.000-03:00

One hundred eighty three years ago, Dom Pedro, vice-regent of the biggest, richest and greatest colony of Portugal declared our land a sovereign Estate. By proclaiming "Independence or Death!", he became our first local emperor - D. Pedro I.

Of course, the beauty of the history told has barely nothing to do with the political game going on behind the royal curtains. There were a lot of interests going on, and the price we had to pay to become a nation of our own without further ties linking us to dear old Portugal excludig all the diplomatic advantages they still kept was the huge debt that haunted our economy until 2003: the one we finally settled with the International Monetary Fund. It took us 183 years to stand up before the world. There is still a lot to go yet.

Today, the fourteen children who attended to the 2 hour class at the Library learned about what it takes to be worthy the country we live in. We have no wars, we have a lot of natural resources, we have more land than we can inhabit and we have all sorts of climates within an area bigger than 8 million square kilometers.

All we need to be better and greater lies within each one of us.

Today I taught them that whatever difference we want done, we must make happen. This morning they learned that, if they want a better life, they need to strive for it. God willing, nothing can hold them back.

One hundred eighty three years ago.

May God bless this already blessed land even more. And may this land never forget that it is God the One who holds our future in His hands, and not the other way around.
_____________________________

Children who attended the class:
- Gabriela Soares, 10 y.o., 4 siblings
- Tiago Nascimento, 7 y.o., 5 siblings
- Bruno Rosa, 10 y.o., 4 siblings
- João Vitor, 8 y.o, 6 siblings
- Adrieli Mota*, 12 y.o., 4 siblings
- Gabrieli Gomes, 6 y.o., only child
- Gabriel Rosa da Silva, 6 y.o., 4 siblings
- Ester Sobrinho, 7 y.o., 3 siblings
- Daniela Rosa Silva, 8 y.o., 4 siblings
- Caio Mota, 7 y.o., 4 siblings
- Marcia Gabi, 5 y.o., only child
- Mariana Cruz Mota, 8 y.o., 2 siblings
- Thais da Silva Pinto, 8. y.o., 5 siblings
- Rheilener da Silva Nascimento, 7 y.o., 5 siblings

*Adrieli made a special request after class. She has no material to take to school. She is 12 and is still in the fourth grade. Her mother cannot afford her a backpack nor a big notebook, and she uses a small notebook to take notes with a pencil and eraser borrowed by her teacher in class.

Solidariety 4 Flexal 2: The Project

2005-09-05T18:42:00.000-03:00

Starting a library under the conditions of poverty is not an easy task. Firstly, because of the financial issues involved. Further, because of the educational level of the users to whom the library is destined.

The main challenge of the project is to go beyond the boundaries a library established in a developed area ever would. A library under these terms must not only supply books for innocent reading, but also play an active role in the process of socio-economic development.

Education is the heavy, resistant – and many times, rusty – door through which a new world with new frontiers will open up for this community, and a library can be a very resourceful asset to this enterprise.

Thinking of poverty when dealing with the poor

According to K. J. Mchombu, the nature, objectives and philosophy of Librarianship in underdeveloped countries should be based on the lifestyle of the people living there. Malnutrition, subhuman work conditions, diseases and a precarious educational system "dictate the pattern of information services".

He, thus, raises three major questions:

What fundamental knowledge and skills does an Information worker need to work efficiently in such a situation?
How can this knowledge be applied to the maximum benefit of the underdeveloped society?
Is it possible to gather a body of knowledge on how best to meet this challenge?

To partially answer the first, more than an overall knowledge on poverty, librarianship and people management, the information worker must have "a particular attitude of mind and secondarily, a suitable methodology that will give the desired results". Open-mindedness is also fundamental. The needs of the people in countries like Brazil vary enourmously and there are hardly two cases alike, as there is not a defined pattern of living – or a Brazilian way of living – that can embrace more than a few cities at a time.

"...Like it or not, we have to start from the known before moving on to the unknown. Through this selective adaption, it is possible to produce a considerable body of knowledge suitable for the needs of underdeveloped countries. The rest of the knowledge needed will, however, have to be derived from the existing situation and unique problems.

"This [e.g. running a community library in an underdeveloped country] will be a classic case of theories evolving from practice, rather than of theories being borrowed from abroad and applied misguidedly in a very different context..."

We then conclude that copying the standards created in the United States, Europe or Australia, or even the Brazilian standard for public libraries – which, in its turn, is a copy of the American, European and Australian one – won’t work. A new set of standards must be developed in order to fit the situation of the place where the library will be implemented; situation itself ever changing.

One must also consider the capital for such enterprise as non-existant. We count solely on the help of people who believe that the outcome is worthy the investment. The material is kept to a minimum. The maintanence of the place needs a greater attention in order to keep the children away from any danger. At first, in the attempt to reduce costs to a minimum, there will be no staff training or extra staff, and all focus will be on the children’s development.

The costs of school material in Brazil are not high. If one spends time looking to pay a great price for great material, one can have great success. However, internal monthly income of Brazilians usually matches the cost of living. While the costs can be low, so are the salaries. This is why it is too common for non-profit organizations to be supported by foreigner NPOs and volunteers.

A brief outline of the project

The project of the Community Library of Flexal II includes primarily eight sections: books, magazines, newspapers, educative games, postal stamps, arts, reading classes (for children only, as there will be classes taught by another NPO staff in the same area), and chess (logic) classes.
At the moment, we have a room, a set of table and chairs, a blackboard, a small provision of notebooks, drawing sheets, crayons and snacks, educative games, a chess-set, and not enough time to fulfill all the children’s needs, as in its second week after the opening, we already have more children than we can attend to.

Nevertheless, the outcome of the project might change this region’s pace of development. Improvement is not a promise, but a very good option when people have access to knowledge. Most of us are aware that knowledge alone can’t take men anywhere, and the purpose of starting a Non-Profit Community Library instead of asking for one at the City Hall is that we want to be able to give the people from our neighbourhood more than knowledge. We want to give them hope, to teach them how to strive for more, and to provide them tools to make it all happen.

Our plan

Our plan is to:

- Own a piece of land with a four-room house on it;
- Have filed and available to the public two thousand books of value – excluding lousy literature, cheap best-sellers, old books on out-of-date subjects, useless "yada" reading (books on no specific subject);
- Work with a staff of three trained volunteers full-time;
- Set up one room for computer classes (with six low pentium computers, e.g. MMX 233 or similar) for the community for a price that will cover only the expenses of outside teachers and power use;
- Provide the latest magazines and newspapers on economy and politics, as well as world news, in a room with couches where people can spend some time being updated on what is going on "on the outside";
- Be able to attend 12-15 people per hour, in a total of eight hours a day including Saturdays, and 6 people per hour, in a total of four hours on Sundays;
- Schedule workshops on health, living, housekeeping, arts, raising children, and other subjects of interest for the community, as well as interactive special classes for the children, aiming to improve their interest in school, family and, later, work.

Retrieving the roots

Whenever one feels proud of the life one lives, one constantly raises the memories of one’s ancestors, and exalts the history of the land where one lives. In places where life is nothing but a struggle to survive except for a few local parties and momentary emotions, both ancestry and history get lost in time.

Facts give place to legends, and legends become myth. Names of rivers and mountains lose their meaning, old families die or move to new places, carrying within their minds and furnitures the memories of a whole region, sometimes as big as most countries in Europe.

We might not be able to get it back, but we might end up helping with the preservation of what has not been lost yet.

Accountability

As per reports, we will produce all necessary paperwork needed to run a library, starting with the documents required to run a non-profit organization. Although the library itself will start from practice to theory, the organisation and management system will be maintained the other way around.

Funds: in order to function properly, the library needs maintenance, eventual repairs, cleaning, fitting, communication with the outside, documentation, printed paper, archiving etc, and all those require funds. The administration of the funds itself demands funds. All the expenses, acquisitions and donations will generate reports.

User service: as the main goal of the library is to supply accessible information, knowledge and healthy entertainment to the people of the surrounding community, reports should be generate in order to evaluate service and help improve the actual management system.

Time: Schedules also will generate reports, so we will be able to observe the relation between the services provided and the amount of time spent in order to provide them.

Overall info: An annual report will be generated, summarizing all the above.

Equipment

Running a community library requires more than books, especially when the plan is to make the service you provide to affect the lives if the people who are benefited by this service.

There is some equipment which is needed, such as shelves, archives and some office stuff. Others, however, improve the performance and provide a better and more complete service for the the community. Some of these are fans, alarms (specially in case of having established a computer room), fire defense manual equipment and photocopying machine (to reproduce didatic material for children’s special and extra classes).

Put in a paper like this, it may not sound much. A simple plan, simple needs and many dreams. In order to make all this reality, we need support. Immediate results are not likely to happen. We believe that it would take a whole generation for us to see how much good – if any – we’ve done for Flexal II.

Let us forget about the future, and think of now.

The community of Flexal II needs help, and we are here, willing to give them what they need. Join us with donations, ideas, good thoughts and prayers.

A better world for these people today might mean a better world for your offspring tomorrow.

Sonia Ribeiro
solidariety4flexal2@gmail.com
Address for correspondence:
Caixa Postal 010100
CEP 29001-970
Vitoria, ES - BRAZIL

This project was developed taking into account the book "International Reader in the Management of Library, Information and Archive Services", compiled by Anthony Vaughan for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in Paris, December 1987, for Unesco.
Subject order and quotations extracted from the book above.
An electronic version of this book can be found on the cd-rom entitled Human Development Library for sustainable development and basic human needs, published by the Humanity Libraries Project, Belgium.

NOTE: Thank you, my dear friend, for all your help and support :)

Flexal 2's Community Library "Noah's Ark"

2005-09-04T17:43:00.001-03:00

Paint working miracles: My primary idea of a logo for the place.

I was reading the Qur'an a couple of days ago and came across surah Ankaboot, one of the chapters of the Book where the history of Prophet Noah is told.

For many reasons, Noah's Ark is a great name for the community library of Flexal. One of them, because entering the Ark meant HOPE. Another, because the Ark was built day after day, by Noah, with tools and wood - PERSEVERANCE. A third one, because many people did not believe that the Ark would ever be needed: "Yikes, Noah, you are nuts! This is, like, the desert, dude!". And all of a sudden, kaboom - VISION. Last, to make the list short, those who believed that the world could be a better place ended up having in the Ark the conflagration of their FAITH.

That is more than enough. Though there is always more.

Solidariety 4 Flexal 2: A Community Library Project

2005-09-03T06:46:00.000-03:00

The project schematics:

Thinking of poverty when dealing with the poor
A brief outline of the project
Our plan
Retrieving the roots
Accountability
Equipment

Those who want to receive copy of the project via e-mail or conventional mail, please, contact me:

Sonia Ribeiro
solidariety4flexal2@gmail.com
Address for correspondence:
Caixa Postal 010100
CEP 29001-970
Vitoria, ES - BRAZIL

Centro de Convivência Gileade

2005-08-28T20:25:00.000-03:00

Less than a year ago, after living in this city for a few months, I came in touch with Centro de Convivência Gileade.

A project meant to keep track on children's development at school, and to add some fun to their hard daily life, 'Gileade House' - as it is called by the kids themselves - ended up being their first and main source of learning.

It didn't take long for the Director, Board and teachers to realize that most of the children, even though enrolled in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years at school, didn't even know how to read. Or to write. Or to work with the basic principles of mathematics.

When I showed them a picture of our president in the cover of a magazine and asked who that man was, they stared at me with a blank look on their faces.

This was more than enough to make us change the course of action. Teaching was no longer an option or an add-on; it was the basic need.

Gileade House is a department of Ywam Vitoria (www.ywam.org, for references on the main org), maintained by christians from many different churches throughout the country. And, one time or another, the world.

Solidariety 4 Flexal 2

2005-08-28T19:25:00.000-03:00

Mount Moxuara: A symbol of beauty, and hope

Flexal II (this is actually the correct spell) is one of the thousands poor neighbourhoods in Brasil. You can find it on a huge map, under the following coordinates: 20º 17' 24'' S, 40º 18' 29'' W.

As in any other poor place around the world, most part of the population - of 360 thousand inhabitants - are illiterate. Many had to drop out of school to work; some got disappointed with the perspectives future offered, and left school even though they tried to study; a few ended up having children before growing up themselves.

Still, for Flexal II, as for every other poor neighbourhood around the world, there is hope. Education alone won't change much. But to start a good fire, all we need is a spark.