Contact Us | Donate | I.Can Foundation | Born to Read | Privacy

Little Libraries -Cagayan de Oro City

Map of the Philippines provided by: www.worldatlas.com

The Little Libraries are located on the island of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines. On Mindanao, the poverty rate approaches 80% and 70,000 poor children are born on the island every month. In 2002, the Report of the Mindanao Commission on Women (MCW) found that the shortfall for public elementary schools included: 11,152 teachers; 16 million textbooks; 12,758 classrooms and 1 million desks, chairs.

Cagayan de Oro is a city with a population of 428,000, 491 miles south of Manila where English and Tagalog are taught in school and Cebuano is spoken. There is only one public library in the city.

There are three Little Libraries locations in Cagayan de Oro.  Each Little Library is located in an area where the nearest public school is far away. Students at each Little Library are enrolled for half-days, leaving the rest of the day to work. Typical jobs include: helping parents sell goods in the local market such as plastic shopping bags; carrying purchases to a shopper’s home or vehicle; scrounging for old nails to sell to a scrap metal dealer or giving rides to people on a tricicad (a bicycle with a side-car).

Most of the children that attend the Little Libraries have dropped out and want to return but they cannot afford the uniform and ancillary costs and are embarrassed to return to school where they are older than their fellow classmates.

During the school year, Little Libraries holds special sessions on certain Saturdays which are focused on preparing the students to pass the annual government examination in February that will enable the child to return to the public school system

Sto. Niño Literacy Centre, Cogon Market, Cagayan de Oro City

Located near the main market of Cagayan de Oro City, the Sto. Niño Literacy Centre operates out of the Sto. Niño Roman Catholic Church, but children of all religions are welcome. Christian and Muslim children are learning together. The families who use this Little Library are, by-and-large, squatters who are barely eking out a living which is in some way related to the market.

Mt. Carmel Literacy Centre, Kabula, Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City

This Little Library is the one located farthest from the city. These families mostly make a living in agricultural work, but they don’t necessarily own their own land. Some of these children spend up to two hours walking to the Mt. Carmel Literacy Centre each way even crossing a river by holding on to a rope suspended from one side to the other so as not to be swept away by the current. When they do so, they carry their books and their clothes on their heads until they reach the other side.

St. Francis Xavier Literacy Centre, >>

Return to home page

Brazil

Philippines

Canada

Brazil – Three in Fortaleza and one in Sao Paulo
Philippines – Three Little Libraries in Cagayan de Oro City
Canada – One in Lynn Lake , Manitoba