Mona Partner Since 2021
Arriba was founded in May 2010 to support the comprehensive education of Ararca’s children, as a way of addressing poverty. The foundation received permission from the school principal to establish and run a school library and playroom with educational toys and activities for 100 primary school students.
After the first year, the teachers and school principal asked Arriba to extend the program to high school students. Since they did not have the personnel, they trained the teachers, provided the materials, and coached them as they learned to hold workshops and activities themselves.
Ararca is an isolated Afro descendant community on Barú Island, Colombia. Ararca is the smallest and the first of three small towns you encounter as you cross the bridge onto the island of Barú from the city of Cartagena, Colombia. Due to centuries of isolation, there is a lack of interest in reading and not much vision for education as an opportunity for progress. Government services are scarce. Therefore, literacy and cultural levels are dismal. The employment and income expectations are equally low.
The library is an inspiring, cheerful, stimulating, and peaceful place like no other in Ararca. It is run by a libarian-educator named Dionisia.
Here the children draw and paint, use playdough, work with legos and various mechanical toys, do puzzles, use memory games and educational lottos, and have access to many other educational toys and experiences.
They also have reading and comprehension practice, put on plays, receive school reinforcement, and participate in a variety of workshops.
Mona began funding Arriba in 2021 by providing full operational support.
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