On Thursday, November 25^th, the Ambassador of Costa Rica to Nicaragua, Don Javier Sancho, officially inaugurated a library located in a public school serving the community of Ciudad Sandino. According to institutional communique 4099 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the new library is about 15 minutes away from the populous capital city of Managua, and it holds many volumes of literature related to Costa Rica.

The inauguration of this school library is part of a social responsibility project undertaken by the Embassy of Costa Rica in Nicaragua. A few organizations from the private sector also pitched in to build and stock this library, which holds thousands of books plus a digital collection of 335,000 works about Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and the rest of the world. The companies that helped this noble educational endeavor include: Claro, Banco Lafise, Grupo Editorial Oceano, and dairy giant Dos Pinos.

In addition to the books and the facility donated to this school, which is aptly named Escuela Costa Rica, the Embassy and its collaborators donated 200 computers for the benefit of the 231 students. Thanks to this additional effort, the students will be able to access not just their new digital collection but also the Internet. Once the library was completed, the Embassy decided to keep going and conducted a remodeling of the school plus a fresh coat of paint.

Speaking at the inaugural act, Ambassador Sancho explained:

“We have wrapped up this effort, which took several months, as part of the social responsibility contracts that our Embassies have with our host communities. This is also an opportunity to ratify our commitment to education, especially for children with socioeconomic needs.”

At the end of the ceremony students and school staff enjoyed snacks courtesy of Dos Pinos. According to teacher Luz Valle Espinoza, the school was supposed to be renamed under a government scheme, but the faculty was able to convince education officials to allow them to be known as Escuela Costa Rica, a name they hold dear.

Ciudad Sandino is a developing community that has been unfortunately besieged by natural disasters such as the devastating 1972 earthquake and Hurricane Mitch in 1998. This community of about 100,000 has an illiteracy rate of about 11 percent, which has been improving in recent years.