Nicaragua, Chichigalpa Community Library

Location

Settled directly in front of the tallest volcano in Central America is a town dating back to the early 1800s named Chichigalpa. It is known as the city of rum and sugar as factories and production sites represent both. And as you may guess, most of the people living here work in one of these two businesses.

Chichigalpa is a small yet busy little town. It is and hour and a half drive from Managua, close yet far for many who do not own vehicles. This is one motivation for starting a public library of their own. Being so far from Managua does not make books and information resources very accessible to the vast majority of the community. Textbooks are also expensive and many students cannot afford to buy their own. This is where the library is helping; making dictionaries, books, and textbooks available to the entire community free of charge.

The library started back in 2001 by the city government and mayor, Carlos Paiz Vanegas. It benefitted from the assistance of various projects and donations from European cities as well as local contributions of books and library furniture. The library is spacious and has the capacity to serve 120 people at a time. Daily about 300 people use the library’s resources.

The library continues to grow, but is still reaching to meet the needs of the community. Some of the current needs are:

Books

Computers/Internet

Children’s educational games/resources

Chichigalpa is a community taking advantage of the current library resources to help better themselves for future opportunities. Many more resources are desired and Chichigalpa is slowly on its way to achieving their goals.