X-Street Children in Nicaragua

Reading is an activity that isn’t often encouraged in Nicaragua. Accompanying this problem is the lack of access to books. With the 300+ books that have been added to the Quinchos library, thanks to my generous donors, the Quincho children have bright new books to read. The only problem is the lack of motivation the kids have when it comes down to opening the books. With this problem came about a short-term solution that I hope will encourage “reading for fun” in the future. 

It is difficult to encourage children to have fun while reading, so we thought it was a great ideato have a small competition between the girls and boys of Los Quinchos to see who can read the greatest number of books in the next four weeks. The kids must read a book, give a small summary, describe the theme, describe their favorite character, tell what they learned from the story, and answer whatever questions we have in order to receive a star on the “concurso” (meaning contest) chart. The two boys and two girls who read the most by the end of our internships (Gloria, Rose, and myself) will be allowed to walk into San Marcos with the three of us to get Eskimo ice cream.

I was a bit worried for the first week of the contest, because the kids were so busy and hadn’t had time to come to the library, but two days ago I asked their caretakers if I could bring them to the library for extra reading time. This was no problem, and there started the beginning of the contest. All then needed was a bit of encouragement and a person to walk them to the library. We will see who wins the contest☺

Below are photos of several Italian women reading with the girls. A great proportion of the funding for the Quinchos program comes from Italian donors, who often venture to Nicaragua to see the progress of the projects and to volunteer however they can.