Arriba las Manos is a foundation that supports education and the arts as tools to combat poverty in Ararca, a marginalized community near Cartagena de Indias (Colombia).
Working with local and foreign volunteers and donors, we develop interventions for children and youth that allow them to access new discoveries, cultivate their abilities and let their imaginations run wild.
In 2013 we inaugurated, in a room of the school, the first and only library in the village of Ararca (Baru Island). Children and young people find a welcoming and stimulating environment to do their homework, practice reading and have fun under the guidance of Dionisia, our cheerful and loving librarian-educator.
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Today it is a luminous space full of informative books, stories and novels, educational games, didactic material, plasticine, puzzles, assembly games, memory games, magnifying glasses, kaleidoscopes, musical instruments, tools for drawing, painting, making shakira bracelets, embroidery...
With Dionisia the students cultivate good habits such as concentrating calmly on a task of their interest, waiting patiently for the other child to finish playing or working with the material they want to use, speaking respectfully to each other, speaking softly when they want to share, listening to each other, leaving their backpack at the entrance without fear of being robbed, washing their hands before entering the library, returning the books, games and materials they use to their place before taking another one, etc. The children themselves remind each other of all this and teach it to newcomers.
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