Embassy Events

Ambassador Goldberg delivers books donated to Cochabamba libraries

As part of the campaign “The United States and Bolivia United for Reading,” the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip S. Goldberg delivered a donation of 400 books and publications by famous American authors, translated into Spanish, to be distributed among several libraries in Cochabamba. The libraries include the “Biblioaircraft” located in the southern district of the city and other public libraries in the rural towns of Pairumani, San Benito, Arana, and Villa Rivero.

The books ware donated to a network of public libraries managed by the Simon I. Patiño Educational and Cultural Center and its Reading Promotion Unit. The Center seeks to promote reading among youth by setting up libraries, some of them in unconventional venues such as a discarded train wagon or an old cargo airplane.

Ambassador Goldberg highlighted the importance of reading to young people and said that the U.S. Embassy supports the habit of reading among Bolivian youth through donations of selected works written by American authors. “In these books you will find literature classics, biographies of famous Americans, history, geography, and reference works. They will expand your knowledge of the United States and the world,” Ambassador Goldberg told a group of children that attended the donation ceremony at the “Biblioaircraft.”

The campaign “The United States and Bolivia United for Reading,” started in 2004 and will last until 2009. This effort is coordinated with several Bolivian institutions, such as the National System of Public School Libraries, the Book Bank, municipal and university libraries, the Academic Farmer Centers, several teachers colleges, and other public libraries. On average, the Embassy conducts two book donations per month. The beneficiaries are children and youths in several underprivileged districts throughout Bolivia.

From 2004 to 2007, the program donated over $115,000 worth in books to 55 libraries. By the end of the campaign the U.S. Embassy will have donated over 40,000 books, which will be made available to more than 100,000 Bolivian children.

Last year alone, the U.S. Embassy, through its Public Affairs Section, donated approximately 8,000 books to rural universities and municipal libraries in the departments of La Paz, Oruro, Santa Cruz, Tarija, Cochabamba, and Potosí, as well as in the city of El Alto. The Embassy’s book donation program will continue to assist libraries in all nine Bolivian departments.