A group that used to be only 3 educated and involved
professionals expanded to include 3 local mothers and 2 local teenagers
(including mi Roxana).
The alumni committee invited influential women from all over
the community (no boys allowed) to decide what they want the future of their
library to look like and hold elections to place responsibility in the hands of
capable locals after I go. The woman who was elected president has only lived
in Madrigal one year now. She has a degree in education and moved to Madrigal
recently married to a Madrigaleño. Ssusan is bright, motivated, and has already
gotten the ball rolling in getting the Municipality to potentially fulfill the
promises already made.
In this meeting we not only delegated responsibilities to
the new members, but all the formal paperwork for the grant was passed over
from me to them, and they filled out the paperwork necessary to be a formal
organization recognized under Peruvian law.
Because our petition with more than 200 local signatures was
ignored by the municipality, Ssusan presented the idea to have the kids march
in the “fiestas patrias” parade with signs to explain to the community that the
kids still want their library, and if the adults don’t stand up, the library
and after school program will be shut down.
By the end of the week the women had formal certificates and
badges recognizing their membership in the committee and they were walking
proud.
The following week, the children and committee members
marched in the street. The night before the youth had prepared 10 posters
calling for the community to act. My personal favorite was Meche’s idea;
Because the mayor spent $5,000 on the bull fight for the festival (a REDICULOUS
proportion of the community’s yearly budget spent in ONE day), we made one
classy poster that stated “We want 5,000 books for our library”. The children and women were very proud
to walk and we got questions afterward from locals about what is going to
happen to the library. Success!!
The following week Ssusan and Meche meet to re-write the
official application requesting the Mayor pay for a librarian. Ssusan presented
the following day and reported to us that the mayor is willing to pay S/. 450 a
month (half of what we requested), and has applied to the Department to get
money to build a library that will be stocked with computers and shelving. This
doesn’t mean to me that any of this will actually happen with in my lifetime,
but it is only a good thing.
In the meantime, there is money left over from the original
grant that the women plan to allocate towards a circuit of individuals that
will attend to the library on a rotating basis as well as re-stock some art
supplies that have dried up such as paint and markers.
I can’t say that I couldn’t ask for more, because I
definitely wanted to see more from the community, and it is still extremely
possible that the library will sit locked up for a few months before loose strings
get tied up, and the possibility of the committee falling apart after I go is
also a reality(mentally, I need to prepare myself for this potential
reality). However, these incredible women are showing valiant initiative on a
purely volunteer basis, and my hope for future of these children I have come to
love remains a-light. 
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