We’re officially 10 days away from the first ever book fair here in Sucre, Bolivia and the BiblioWorks squad has been running around like crazy to ensure the event’s success. La Feria de la Lectura (the literature fair) will be held on Saturday, April 14th in downtown Sucre right next to the central market in Plazuela San Francisco.
At this point we have almost every major educational institution in town participating at the fair with educational games and information, as well as 11 sponsors, including Tigo (telecom), AeroSur (airline) and Coca-Cola (you know).
Over the past 2 weeks (and continuing up until the day of) we’ve been covering the streets of Sucre with posters and flyers, and announcing the big event on all the major radio and TV stations. We’ve invited every school in the district and even provided their transportation funds.
Like planning any major event, there will always be obstacles and for us it has been the all-to-familiar inefficiency and bureaucracy of the government. Canceled meetings, empty promises and slow execution has been annoying but thankfully the organization and persistence of the 3 BiblioWorks staffers (Matt, Maritza and Roxanna) has allowed us to face these roadblocks in stride. And yes you heard that right, there are only 3 BiblioWorks employees and the third isn’t even full time. Incredible.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you an update of where everything stands and tell you that I’m super excited about being a part of this. The people we’ve spoken with here in Sucre love the idea and think this will be a great step for improving the literacy in Sucre and it will hopefully influence other Bolivian cities to follow suit.
Through the Tourist2Townie.com site and with help from friends, and friends of friends, we have raised $1,955 towards the book fair and we are 77% of the way to funding the entire thing!
Wish us luck in the upcoming days as we make our the final push towards organizing and executing La Feria de la Lectura. Much more photos and videos in the coming weeks.
I know I’ve been pushing the funding a lot across the social networks, but it really does mean a lot to all of us if you can make a small donation to help us reach our goal.
Thank you so much for those who already have and thank you just as much for those who are about to. DONATE HERE
5 Responses
So exciting! Congrats on raising so much money!
Brock – Backpack With Brock recently posted..Success! 31 Days of Posting and Finding Happiness First
Thanks Brock!
So proud of you! Got some more money coming in from California! We’ll hit our goal I know it!
I couldn’t do it without you!
Aw shucks you made me blush 🙂
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