Civic & Social Organization - Saint Charles, Missouri, United States
The focus on libraries has been an attempt to support village development without specifying what that should look like. Our aim was to give local choice, curiosity and creativity as free rein as we could.Villagers credit the Yupukari Public Library and its outreach activities with the consistent rise in the pass rate from Primary to Secondary school, from near zero when we started in 2005 to 86% in 2019.Seeded by Rupununi Learners Foundation, and over time funded primarily by revenue from the guesthouse, the Library's fortunes have risen and fallen with our ecotourism business, which has been drastically impacted by the abrupt cessation of direct air service to ecotourist villages.At our peak, the Library has been staffed by a full-time librarian and several trainees, with a dozen laptops, a 24/7 Internet connection, and about 6500 hand-picked English language books in Yupukari, as well as films, puzzles, toys, maps and globes, art and classroom supplies, all aimed at developing stronger foundation skills for education.Beyond Yupukari, our dream is to support other Rupununi communities with similar resources.Wabbani.com, our for-profit enterprise, has been created to increase the funding available for libraries and other avenues Rupununians may choose to steer their own self-development.
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