The Baybayin Library’s projects focus on the development of access to reading, entertainment and education, but also the development of knowledge on essential subjects such as health, the environment, autonomy, personal and professional development. Our mission is carried out both inside and outside the library, by our association or with partners, with the main goal of serving the interests of the local community.
MANY FREE ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
Children are at the heart of the organization’s mission. Several times a week, we offer free creative workshops, music lessons, storytelling and cartoon or movie screenings.
In addition to the weekly activities, our team organizes regularly sharing circles for its little visitors. Our aim is to develop their ability to share their feelings, to externalize their emotions or to become aware of the value of their critical mind and their personal opinion on given themes. Meditation and breathing exercises were also implemented after the typhoon to help the children manage their stress.
The daily life of the children inspired us to liven up their days. Times for singing, dancing, shouting, but also times of silence are improvised during the day. The children can therefore expend their energy while having fun, while learning to respect the discretion expected in a library so that the older ones can read and study serenely.
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
Whether on its own initiative or on the initiative of its partners, Baybayin Library’s mission is to propose activities around essential themes such as health, environmental protection or professional life. A large number of projects are carried out in partnership with volunteers or associations committed to our side.
The experience of each person and the complementarity of the different participants give strength to our mission, with the common objective of serving the interests of the local population. Medical consultations, environmental protection awareness, women’s health awareness, training, meditation or yoga classes or creative workshops; we multiply our efforts with our partners to offer events adapted to the needs of the island’s inhabitants.
DEVELOPMENT OF LIBRARY CORNERS
The Baybayin Library is located in the center of General Luna. In order to allow the greatest number of people to have access to reading, the organization wishes to help its partners located in the north so that they can themselves develop library spaces in their sector. Our objective is to be able to provide them, on a regular basis, with books to add to their collection.
Depending on the number of book donations obtained each year, we also hope to be able to distribute boxes of books and toys to isolated villages and islands.
A MOBILE LIBRARY THROUGH SIARGAO
The aim of the organization is to be able to go, at least once a month, to meet the children who do not have the possibility to come to General Luna to enjoy the library. During these visits, they can participate in workshops, listen to story readings, discover a selection of books and draw with our team and the volunteers who accompany them.
RESPONSE TO THE EMERGENCY
On December 16, 2021, Typhoon Rai (called Odette in the Philippines) hit the island of Siargao with winds exceeding 300 km/h. The island was devastated and tens of thousands of inhabitants were left homeless, in the middle of the rainy season. Abandoned by international NGOs during the first two weeks following the typhoon, the island could only count on the mobilization of associations, local businesses and individuals invested outside and inside the island to organize the supply of drinking water, food and medicine to the population.
From the first days following the passage of the typhoon, the NGO has done everything possible to respond to the emergency by participating in humanitarian aid alongside its partners. Distributing water filters, drinking water, food, medicines and essential equipment, we chose to evolve our mission and adapt to this unprecedented context in order to respond to the emergency.
We have also developed a reconstruction program to support families whose homes have been totally destroyed. The Baybayin Library has helped more than 20 families to rebuild their homes completely and has provided materials to several dozen others to enable them to renovate their partially destroyed homes.
Finally, we have chosen to participate in the financing of various projects carried out by our local partners: renovation of fishing boats, sponsorship of farmers to revive agricultural production, free kitchen for children in the north of the island. The Baybayin Library itself created a kitchen for the children of General Luna and distributed nearly 4000 free meals during the 3 months following the typhoon.
