Time flies when you’re having fun!
I would like to share a brief summary of what we have accomplished in 2019, remembering that what we’ve done in the past allows us to envision what we want to do in the future. Goodbye 2019, hello 2020!
In numbers, our Children’s Club program held approximately 100 sessions in which the children grew familiar with reading and learned to love the adventures that books can bring. Our teaching English program held approximately 400 hours of English lessons for children, teenagers, and adults. We also had 50 sessions of language exchange, which is always a lot of fun!
In the first quarter, together with a group of volunteers from Solidarite Sud, Quebec, Canada, and the Saint Jesaja church in Wiesbaden, Germany, we opened two important spaces for our children: the English classroom and the first stage of the reading corner where children finally have spaces more conducive to learning and enjoying reading.
In the second quarter, we were very busy with lots of workshops and camps, starting with Rainbow Days, a program to strengthen self-esteem. We also held a club focused on gender which culminated in an intensive three day camp called “GLOW-BRO”, or Girls Leading Our World and Boys Respecting Others. Also, with our event “FestiArtes 2019, conexión Pachamama”, the kids and the community had the opportunity to participate in workshops, plays, and other cultural activities.
In the third phase of 2019 our family grew, registering 28 new kids along with their parents for the third annual “Escuela para padres” or “Parent’s School”. From July through September, the mothers (and hopefully soon we will have more fathers attending!) participated in workshops covering themes such as positive discipline, the rights of the child, types of abuse, good communication, values, self-care, and other topics that provide tools to help parents in the upbringing of their children.
In the final quarter of the year, Clara Luna’s group of teenagers started a project called “Biblioteca comunitaria”, or “Community Library”. This youth group, sensitized to the importance of promoting reading for understanding human, social, and cultural situations both in and outside the community, initiated the process of implementing the community library, which will open its doors in 2020.
We brought 2019 to a close with our Christmas celebration, in which 32 families and 60 kids accompanied us to end the year with a motivation to maintain the commitment to the Clara Luna community. And volunteers? We had approximately 30 welcomes and goodbyes to important allies, who contributed their time and knowledge to help Clara Luna continue to grow. Donations? To our friends and sponsors, our family that even at a distance stays connected to our cause and has supported us in our years of growth and learning: Thank you for your unconditional support! Without you, none of this would be possible.
Here’s to a truly successful year!
And what is to come in 2020?
So much that we can’t stop, won’t stop! Our kids will participate in projects like “Escuela de las Buenas Acciones” (School of Good Actions), followed by the opening of our community library in March.
Among the benefits of learning a new language is stimulation of the memory and improvement of attention. For these reasons we are preparing for the addition of more English classes, for the newly registered children at Clara Luna.
Our pilot plan, “Clubcito, reading with the little ones” challenges us to create special moments and fun read-alouds for the little ones in the house, who will enter the world of reading as early as possible. The clubcito was the most requested in 2019, now it’s starting!
2020 arrived with sunshine, a great time to go to the sea and enjoy the Surf Club. With our “ Club Lobitos”, who love surfing and water, we will reclaim our space for activities with the group of people with disabilities. We are missing them dearly!
Of course, “FestiArtes 2020, Diversity edition”, in collaboration with the collective “Alégrate Puerto López”, is bringing more cultural activities to Puerto López. Continuing to plant the seeds that our children will one day harvest, we do not stop until we know that our little ones have grown up in a motivating environment that makes them curious about learning.
Certainly, the fourth GLOW-BRO Gender Club and Camp, the fourth school for parents, the third edition of the Rainbow Days program and many more family reading events like “Érase una vez” and “Cuentos en la Plaza” will continue as it should in the rural areas of the province. This year, as allies of the School of Good Actions, and in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals, we are preparing the program “Mobile Libraries” as an educational tool for training for gender equality.
We will continue to go out to the park, to the sidewalk, to wherever the children are, bringing plenty of books!
In 2020, we want reading to be endless!
Escuela para padres 
Comfy reading pose 
Community Library on! 
Club de Niños 
Reading in “Bosque de Colores” 
Érase una vez, the rebel girls. 
Where the story begins… 
English lessons. 
We love reading! 
Cuentos en la Plaza. 
Reading is FUNdamental! 
Handcraft 
Read me a book! 
Cotton craft. 
“Here we are”, by Oliver Jeffers activity. 
Face Painting Day. 
I like reading! 
Puppet play.