My Nonprofit Reviews

In August this year, I traveled to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, to help install a small digital library system in a rural school. The project was sponsored by HJH Libraries for All Program and was 2 years in the making. Every minute of fundraising and planning was worthwhile. Our team spent 2 days training very excited teachers in a small, bilingual charter school near the edge of the town. The real joy for all of us came in turning the students loose on their new computerized library. The digital library system includes hundreds of full-text resources - books, instructional materials, guides, and more - as well as a wealth of children's activities, games, videos, and music. Best of all, the system can create its own local network, so internet access is not required. In the next phase, we hope to install the digital library system in the local library, thereby expanding the library's services and collections to more people in the community. I am very proud of this project, and I am grateful to work with an extraordinary team of people devoted to the community of San Juan del Sur.

I had been familiar with the HJH Foundation's many projects in Nicaragua for several years before traveling there in 2017. During that trip, I attended the college graduation of a young man from Rivas whose education was sponsored by Foundation members and saw first-hand the Nicaraguans' profound appreciation for education and learning. That young man is now an instructor in a local school. The San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Pública is the first public lending library in Nicaragua, and, since 2001, it has provided books, computers, internet access, physical spaces, activities for children and adults, and community outreach to San Juan del Sur and surrounding areas. The Foundation collaborates closely with the San Juan del Sur community in the southern region of Nicaragua, engaging successfully with local citizens, educators, business owners, and community leaders to build sustainable, community-based programs. I am a Foundation board member, and I continually marvel at the other board members', friends', and donors' dedication to all the projects that Foundation undertakes in Nicaragua. Foundation President Jane Mirandette brings remarkable vision and determination to every project. At the beginning of the 2019 pandemic, the library staff and volunteers delivered food, sanitation essentials, and safety precautions to communities in rural Nicaragua. Library staff learned quickly to create safety shields in the library's 3D printing center, and they distributed the shields to community health care workers. In June 2021, the library began to resume operations gradually and carefully. Truly, the San Juan del Sur Biblioteca Pública is at the heart of its community, and I hope you will join me in supporting it.