2005-1-30
I'm Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
Andrew Carnegie became rich in the American steel industry. But
he spent much of his life giving away his money. One of his main
interests was developing libraries in small towns. Andrew Carnegie
died in nineteen nineteen.
Now a non-profit group in the United States has taken some of his
ideas to Central America, especially Guatemala and Honduras. The
Riecken Foundation has opened fifteen libraries in the past five
years. Seven more are being built.
The goal is to help people explore new worlds. Not just through
books, but also through computers connected to the Internet. The
hope is to build as many as one thousand libraries throughout
Central America.
The Riecken Foundation provides much of the cost of building the
structures as well as paying for the books and computers. The group
also trains committees to make the policies that govern how a
library operates. Members of these library committees are not paid.
They provide land for the building and pay for a full-time
librarian. They also pay for water and electricity for the library.
Some of the people who work for the Riecken Foundation are former
members of the Peace Corps. This government program sends Americans
to help communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They work for
two years or more with very little pay.
The foundation was created in two thousand by Allen Andersson, a
businessman. He served in the Peace Corps in Honduras in the
nineteen sixties. The very first employee, Meredith Bellows, served
in Guatemala several years ago. Now she is a director of the
foundation.
Miz Bellows worked in the small community of San Juan la Laguna.
A story in G.W. Magazine in two thousand two described her work. Miz
Bellows trained poor women who received small business loans. She
told how she taught one woman to bake bread in ovens built from
simple materials.
The library in the town is extremely small. But things are about
to change. Meredith Bellows tells us that this week a bigger library
will be completed in San Juan la Laguna.
Internet users can learn more about the Riecken Foundation at
riecken.org.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary
Garriott. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.