Volunteers needed for short term projects

Are you coming to Akumal and looking for a place to donate some of your time or expertise? The library often has small, maintenance projects that need to be completed. The best way to arrange this is to visit the library shortly after you arrive and speak to Carlos and/or Leo about what needs to be done.

Below is a list of our current needs:

Carpentry--
Make door for bathroom

Electric work--
1. Installation of outdoor flood light with motion sensor in back garden area
2. Check light in main building that does not turn off completely

Miscellaneous--
Secure AA sign to building

Masonry--
Repair/replace benches on patio in front of library

Community Outreach Service--Long term projects

PHOTOVOICE

Hekab Be (Open Road) Library of Akumal has a vision for starting a project using a method called “Photovoice.” This project would allow the library to reach out to the adolescent population of Akumal pueblo, in particular the students of the secondary (middle) school.

WHAT IS PHOTOVOICE?

By using photography, the adolescents can capture different aspects of their daily lives in their own community, such as: their school, their housing, their friends, and experiences of things that are meaningful to them.

HEKAB BE LIBRARY WILL BE PIONEERING THIS PROJECT IN AKUMAL

As the impetus behind this project, Hekab Be library aims to use Photovoice as a way to engage the community’s adolescents, giving them the opportunity to express and transmit their thoughts, beliefs and feelings in every image they capture with their cameras. The photos then become a medium for self-reflection as well as a means for them to communicate their unique perceptions and world-view.

By asking adolescents to use the cameras/photography as a means of communication about the world around them, as they see it, library staff will have the opportunity to better understand their hopes and dreams. The ultimate goal of this project is to help guide Akumal’s adolescents to pathways of success, by making links between the photovoice project and the adolescent’s education in all areas, including: Arts, Languages (Spanish, Mayan, English), Sciences and Ecology.

Want to read more about the photovoice method? Click here