Background

"Living Library" is a 2 year project that aims at making the act of reading and writing as an everyday activity for poor children and their teachers. This would mean less failures in elementary school and more children learning about their reality and how to change it. These "libraries" are being implanted in Community Centers in charge of children and adolescents living in the poor districts on the fringe of the big cities, where huge slums and acute social problems are concentrated. To achieve its objective the Project team provides personal development for the community teachers by preparing them to work with books and reading activities in the context of poverty and deprivation of their institutions. Each library is unique, taking into account the needs and the culture of the community where it is located. The Project is supported by a grant from Citibank in partnership with the Abrinq Foundation for the Children's Rights.

Narrative

From the mid 40's to the 70's the big cities in the south of Brazil expanded due to internal migrations. The poorest settlers were brushed-off to the outskirts of these cities and there lives today a great mass of unqualified workers crammed in huge slums. Some of these slums have no water supply and none have sewage systems. In these poor districts we find the highest rates of illiteracy and elementary school failures. There, also, can be found the worst schools and most doubtful health services, despite all the improvements conquered by organized inhabitants during the 80's.

During those years, with the intensification of social problems, many non governmental organizations were created and many existing Community Centers boosted their activities to provide non formal education for children and adolescents after school hours. Most families send their children to these institutions to take them off the streets. There they receive food, several types of care and the help of an adult for their homework, since they are typically children that fail in elementary school.

Many children stay at school for several years without ever learning how read and write. The majority of those "scholar failure cases" come from environments deprived of books and written materials.

These institutions work with little or no materials and untrained professionals seldom identified as teachers - they are called entretainers or nannies. They want help, they want training in order to provide high standart educational support that can realy change the life of these children. One of the handicaps of these teachers and children is the fact that books (mainly good ones) are absent in their homes and working places.

The "Living Library" project has been created to meet this need for good books, information and professional training. The Project allows the access to books as sources of knowledge and information, enchantment and pleasure at the same time that they contribute to a better school performance. Books will help many children overcome their handicap: entering school without previous contact with written materials at their homes, which often leads them to failure at school. It will allow the personal development of the community teachers by preparing them to work with books and reading activities in the context of poverty and deprivation found at the institutions.

To achieve its objective the Project team : identifies and selects the organizations eligible to receive the library, taking into account the quality of the educational work offered to the community; prepares the community teachers and follows-up this work at the community; selects and buys the books according to local needs ; registers and creates documentation of the whole process and the results achieved with the children.

Fourty four institutions took part in the selective process. Among those, 10 were chosen to receive the library: 2 in Brasilia and 8 in Sao Paulo. Fourteen community teachers went through a 44 hour training program. The first 10 libraries received 4,000 books directly benefiting 2,500 children and adolescents.

The first 10 "libraries" were implanted and are open to the community. They attend institutions that look after street children from slums in the outskirts, children living in tenements downtown, children living in shelters (who have no parents or are temporarily separated from them) and children from poor homing project community center (previous construction camp) as in case of Vila Planalto in Brasilia, Brazil's capital.

Impact

20,000 CHILDREN'S READERS

Sustainability

The "Living Library" Project is based on the idea that reading and writing are meaningful only when they become means for children to learn more about their reality and to change their lives and their environment.
The Project will affect decisively these children as it changes their relationship with formal schooling and fills the gap between children who come from literate families and those comimg from homes deprived of contact with books or written materials.It will teach them not only to read and to value books but also to read their environment, to look at their reality using concepts they can obtain from books with the community teachers' help.
The project affects community teachers' in many ways: they are trained and given new knowledge for working with children, using books as a tool for educational purposes. They are led to understand how books change people and reality itself.They learn to introduce new subjects to discuss with which to teach children and impart knowledge needed for success in elementary school. Finaly,they learn new concepts about the social meaning of literacy in poor communities and they can enhance literacy learning by linking writing instruction to the culture of the community as well as to the functions served by writing in the community.
The Project consolidate and reinforce an effective model for immediate action to revert the perverse social scene found in third world big cities. This model brings together entrepreneurs, big companies and the civil society in partnership sponsored by Abrinq Foundation for the Children's Rights fostering the exchange between those who want to participate and those who need help.

Contact

CITIBANK, N.A.
Av. Paulista, 1111
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Brazil
01311-920
(5511) 576 2004

Sponsor

Fund. Abrinq Pelos Direitos da Crianaa, Sao Paulo
Abrinq Foundation for Children's Rights
Rua Alberto De Faria, 473
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Brazil
05459-000
(55 11) 814-9500

Partners

CITIBANK,N.A.
Grajew, Oded
Rua Alberto de Fario, 473
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Brazil
05459-000
(5511) 814 9500

Wilheim, Ana Maria
RUA ALBERTO DE FARIA, 473
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Brasil
05459-000
(5511) 814 9500

Goldenstein, Marlene Seica
Rua Alberto de Faria 473
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Brazil
05459-000
(55-11) 814 9500