When you first see Elba, nothing would strike you about this shy unassuming woman. But when you see her reading with the children you see a brightly burning light and a passion come to life.

As one of our volunteers observed in a note “this woman is awesome!” and the hundreds of children who she reaches would certainly second that opinion.  As the children’s librarian at Pedro Molina, a former military base turned school, Elba carefully selects age appropriate books for each group of children she reads with. She plans carefully how she will involve the children’s thinking, compassion, excitement and lives with each book she chooses. It is a powerful thing to see the joy and excitement that she brings to each group. Elba notes simply “I love to read.” But it is much more than this. Elba has a passion for sharing this love.

“The library is so important! These books and the work we do here help our children immensely for the future. It stimulates their imaginations. They learn new vocabulary. It makes them think. I ask questions as we go along and get them involved in the story. For example, can they help a character to find something in a picture, or solve a problem. Or if someone in the story feels sad, what can the other do to help them. They enjoy it, and they love the fact that I enjoy it too – the pleasure of reading together.”

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They began their trip from a warehouse in Oakland, California last summer and ended it in Antigua, Guatemala. Eighty computers – donated to Child Aid by The Indigenous Society – were wrapped, packed and shipped to Guatemala for use in our schools and libraries.

The social multiplier effect of a donation of 80 used computers to Guatemala is mind-boggling. The equation goes something like this: Take 80 computers multiplied by 8 hours total of learning time a day multiplied by 5 days a week multiplied by 52 weeks a year plus the Internet and it equals hundreds of children with access to thousands of new learning opportunities. This, in an area of the world where just finding any educational opportunities is a challenge. 

Soledad came to Child Aid’s CORAL project in Oaxaca, Mexico at age 8, unable to speak a single word.  Her parents suspected there was something wrong with their child’s hearing, but were unable to pay for expensive diagnostic tests. So they did what many poor Oaxacan families without access to proper medical care, they just made do.

On her first appointment at the CORAL clinic, Soledad was diagnosed with severe hearing loss and fitted with her first pair of hearing aids.  Then, in order to help Soledad make sense of the new world around her and to begin the long, slow process of learning a language, she was promptly enrolled in CORAL’s school, specializing in auditory-oral education for deaf children.