Our Challenge

Most children who begin school in Mayan villages of Yucatán, Mexico have never held a book.

Our Solution

In 2006, Bring Me A Book partnered with Proyecto Itzaes, an educational nonprofit serving Maya villages in Yucatán, Mexico.  In collaboration with Proyecto Itzaes’ Leamos Juntos Yucatán literacy program, we brought self-sustaining libraries to six Maya villages.  “Phase I” served the three villages of Dzemul, Ixil, and Mococha.  “Phase II,” which launches in 2007 to deliver books in January 2008, will serve the villages of Chicxulub Puerto, Chicxulub Pueblo, and Cholul.  

These six villages each received 220 brand new hardcover books, all in Spanish, along with a library infrastructure that allowed books to be taken home.  Parent volunteers managed book check-out and the children had access to beautiful cloth Book Bags to take the books home.  The bookshelves and Book Bags were made in Yucatán, making the sense of community ownership even stronger.

Together, the six communities in our Yucatán project received:

• 1,320 high-quality, hardcover books, all in Spanish (220 per village).
• Bookshelves, built by a carpenter in Yucatán.
• 1,000 cloth Book Bags, manufactured in Yucatán.
• Transportation and shipping costs.

These libraries in Yucatán have been tremendously successful so far, and we look forward to the success of Phase II.