PAZ Y VIDA, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca Paz y Vida, founded 2018
With efforts from organizations in France, Germany, the USA, and Nicaragua, Biblioteca Paz y Vida opened in 2018. German ambassador Ute Konig congratulated the village at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The residents of Paz y Vida were once homeless. Now they live in small houses with running water and electricity. Instead of fetching water and wood, the children go to school. Afterwards they rush to the library where they color, study, and read―and prepare for a future of literacy and opportunity.
LA LAGUNA, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca Frankfurt, founded 2016
Until a few years ago, the students at Escuela San Pablo learned to read exclusively from the blackboard: they had no books at all. So, when the community of La Laguna heard that a US organization was creating libraries nearby, they got busy. By the time FBTB arrived, they could proudly point to a bright blue structure with the word "Biblioteca" painted in gold over the door. The school now had a library but still lacked books. In 2018, the Frankfurt Granada Association renovated the building, and today FBTB’s over 700 books and educational materials fill the shelves. Here kids study, do homework, play games, and color. Teachers run the library, and mothers keep it clean and inviting.
SOLIDARIDAD, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca Solidaridad, founded 2014
The neighborhood kids wait in line daily for the library door to open. With 125 books donated by her daughters, Indira Morales founded Biblioteca Solidaridad in 2014, following the FBTB model of collaborating with community leaders to create the right space. From the beginning, the village had a plan. An FBTB library would occupy the second floor of their new community center, and a preschool would meet on the first floor. Evening reading classes and vocational training would draw in parents. Now, with a thousand books and a plethora of educational materials, the library joyfully serves its community.
EL PANTANAL, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca José de la Cruz Mena, founded 2010
Located in the third classroom of José de la Cruz Mena School, the library serves the elementary students there as well as children from nearby schools. El Pantanal is a desperately poor community where many live in or around a city dump. The good news: a housing project is dramatically changing lives there. With increasing enrollment but limited classrooms, both the school and the library need to be flexible. Plans for a separate, permanent structure are currently on hold. Stay tuned!
EL FORTIN, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca Paraíso del Niño, founded 2009
Named by the children in 2009, this tiny lending library is a bustling center for local readers and future leaders. Many young patrons call it their "second home." Today pairs of shoes, small and large, greet you at the door. Inside children do homework and play games; adults learn to read; teachers plan lessons. "Biblioteca Paraíso del Niño has transformed the village, and now several kids are grown and studying at university," says Indira Morales, FBTB partner and project manager for a women's cooperative in nearby Granada.
MULUKUKU, NICARAGUA
Biblioteca Samuel Vidaurre, founded 2007
FBTB founders learned the tragic story behind this library while volunteering for a medical mission in rural Nicaragua. During the Sandanista Contra War, Samuel, the son of a local farmer and the town’s only teacher, was executed―education was power, literacy his crime. After this tragedy, the library closed. Two decades later, FBTB reopened the library with 967 beautiful children’s books purchased in the capital city of Managua. Soon there were thousands of books. Now teachers and students have access to all the library’s resources in its new location, the Ricardo Morales Avilés elementary school.