wfn.org | South Carolina United Methodists send books to Honduras

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Sept. 29, 2000  News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-32-71B{443}

By Paul Jeffrey*

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (UMNS) - After Hurricane Mitch washed away tens of
thousands of homes in Honduras, Michael Leonard thought the best thing he
could do was go to the country and lend a hand with rebuilding.

What he experienced in Honduras shocked him, and he returned home determined
to do something more to improve the quality of life for Honduran villagers.
	
Leonard had traveled to southern Honduras in June 1999, eight months after
Mitch devastated most of the country's central area. He arrived with a
volunteer work team sponsored by St. John's United Methodist Church in
Lugoff, S.C. The team's trip was coordinated by Church World Service, the
relief agency of the U.S. National Council of Churches, and the Christian
Commission for Development (CCD) in Honduras.
	
A computer expert and member of Shandon United Methodist Church in Columbia,
S.C., Leonard went with the group to build housing in Las Lajas, a poor
village near the Nicaraguan border. Conditions there, he said, "far exceeded
what we'd expected to see. It was almost like we stepped back into the
Middle Ages. We found out how naive we are."

Leonard was particularly struck by the villagers' lack of opportunities to
read. After returning home, he talked about his experience with friends and
decided to form a project, dubbed "Reading is Power," that would take books
to people in Las Lajas and other remote villages.

"We went to Honduras with the idea of helping in a physical way, and now we
hope to help in an intellectual way," he explained.

Reading is Power sent its first shipment of 1,000 books to CCD in July.
Support came from Shandon church volunteers, who processed the books and
built shipping containers that convert into bookcases, as well as a grant
from the Adaptec Foundation. Destined for Las Lajas, the
Spanish-language books are divided into five reading levels.
	
Leonard and project co-sponsor Joe Connell, a Mormon attorney from Camden,
S.C., visited Honduras in August and took the books to Las Lajas. Community
members are putting the finishing touches on the three-room building that
will house the books, a small game center, and a store that will sell snacks
and help keep the library self-sufficient.

Many of the adults in Las Lajas and similar communities are illiterate. "We
thought that maybe the old people would be too proud to let the young people
read to them, but the reverse turned out to be
true," Connell said. "They were proud of the books and anxious to learn. One
older fellow who could not read took a book to one of the children and said,
'Here, read this to me.'"

Reading is Power has already secured funding for additional libraries for
other communities, Leonard said.

The library in Las Lajas, which will serve some 200 families in the
immediate area, is one of more than 40 "Popular Libraries" constructed by
CCD and other nongovernmental organizations in the Honduran countryside.
Designed initially to provide continuing education for newly literate
adults, the libraries have expanded their mission, and often include special
programs to meet the needs of children, youth and women.
	
Local volunteers have built each of the libraries. CCD, an ecumenical
development organization supported by the United Methodist Church, has
provided books for four libraries, and has five - including the one in Las
Lajas - under construction. CCD also provides training for volunteer
librarians. Building materials are provided by National Adult Literacy
Network of Honduras, a private organization.
	
Assistance from Reading is Power is going to enable CCD to construct more
libraries in neglected areas of the countryside, according to Carlos
Enamorado, a popular communications specialist with CCD.

"They chose the name of their organization well," Enamorado said, "because
being able to read helps a person better understand what's around them, and
empowers and emboldens them to change what they don't like about their
village or their world."

# # #

*Jeffrey is a United Methodist missionary and freelance writer and
photographer based in Honduras. Bob Spear of The State newspaper in
Columbia, S.C., contributed to this article. Further information can be
found at www.readingispower.com, www.ccdhonduras.org and
www.churchworldservice.org.

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United Methodist News Service
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