What was IBBY-Uruguay’s highlight of the year 2015?
foto’s gemaakt door Federico Gutierrez
In the year 2015, as well as in the many years that have preceded it – the Uruguayan National Section of the expansive community that is IBBY has maintained its commitment to the children and young people of our country, and especially to those living in the most vulnerable and disadvantaged socio-economic and cultural contexts. We are constantly developing activities with the goal of instilling in them a love of reading, not only for the deep and well-deserved pleasure that it brings, but also to help them achieve inclusion in a society that has left them out in the cold.
IBBY-Uruguay has implemented various projects this year, but we would like to focus on those that we believe highlight our work in 2015. For many years, IBBY-The Netherlands has maintained direct links with IBBY-Uruguay, and this year their solidarity and support have allowed us to hold a series of Workshops with Parents, Grandparents and Teachers in different educational facilities.
Upon taking into account that the integral education of children and their formation as human beings directly depend on their immediate environment – their families and schools – actions were conceived to complement the work of teachers by promoting reading in the classroom with the participation of the family. Therefore, it was important that the family (parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters) be involved in the process and form part of it.
At the beginning of 2015, five Workshops were planned for each of the four selected Educational Centers. What happened in the Workshops was something very special – it was the highlight of the year for IBBY-Uruguay and for all those that worked as mediators.
One of the educational centers was School 355 in the Paso de la Arena
A CAIF centre that attends to Children in Early Childhood and Pregnant Mothers
In addition to the Parents, Grandparents and Educators/Teachers that were invited to participate in the weekly workshops, small children and adolescents who were brothers and sisters of the children voluntarily attended. Also in attendance (in the case of School 355) were teachers of Language and Literature that teach in high schools and who were interested in participating.
Furthermore, IBBY-Uruguay, with the support of IBBY-The Netherlands, donated a total of 100 children’s books – selected by IBBY members – to facilitate reading and lending of books.
The Workshops were rich in reading, in experiences, in communication, and in the lending of books to be read at home. Each week, the teachers received the books that had been lent out and lent them again to participants. All the Workshop’s attendants – and especially the mothers and grandmothers – were so enthusiastic and pleased that they requested that the IBBY-Uruguay mediators extend the workshops until the end of the year; a request that was very happily granted. At the request of th e Parents and Grandparents, this process will continue in 2016.