Welcome to the BookBus project for San Cristobal!

San Cristobal

Welcome Readers! This blog is dedicated to the process of improving literacy on the island of San Cristobal, the second most populated island in the Galapagos. Our project is currently in its very beginning stages, and we want to share the action with you, as we work to develop a new idea here in the Enchanted Islands. What is our project, you may ask? Well, let me tell you...
The project is a joint effort between The Book Bus and Hacienda Tranquila. The Book Bus is a charity based in the United Kingdom that aims to spread literacy around the world by increasing access to literary materials, delivering books to children, and inspiring those children to love reading. The Book Bus works by repurposing old vehicles and turning them into mobile libraries, giving remote communities new access to reading materials. The organization already has operations established in Africa, India, and continental Ecuador, and is looking to expand their reach to the Galapagos (check them out! http://www.thebookbus.org/index.html). 

This is where Hacienda Tranquila enters the story. Hacienda Tranquila is an NGO on San Cristobal that has been working with volunteers since 2005 to preserve and rehabilitate the wonder that is the natural environment on the island (check them out, too! http://www.haciendatranquila.com/cristobal.php). Hacienda Tranquila is unique in that they are committed not only to the environment, but to helping the community that inhabits San Cristobal as well. As the environmental components of the Hacienda’s work have produced impressive results, the Hacienda was looking for new ways in which volunteers could continue to serve the community. And then Hacienda Tranquila met the Book Bus; a perfect match.

Hacienda Tranquila is now currently working to facilitate and coordinate the startup of a Book Bus project on San Cristobal. The project will be three fold:

      1.      Create a BookBus (or in our case, BookTruck!) that will be a mini-mobile-library,

      driving around the island, giving isolated communities access to reading materials through a book exchange program.

      2.      Establish “Reading Corners” in local schools (some of which do not have libraries) so that young readers have more materials to sink their teeth into. Pair this with volunteer opportunities, so that local students have new, enthusiastic people to read with. The idea is to make reading fun and exciting for young students.

      3.      Establish “Reading Corners” in community spaces as well, so EVERYONE on the island, young or old, in school or not, has the opportunity to get into reading.

Hacienda Tranquila believes that learning shouldn’t be limited to lessons in school, but should be fostered through active learning and the search for knowledge; in this sense, the Book Bus is a perfect way to expand learning opportunities in the Galapagos. As of now, we’re starting this project from the ground-up, and we’re so excited about this process that we want to share it with you! Thanks for reading, and keep an eye out for updates, as every week will detail a new step in our process of starting up the BookBus.