The library: A New Dawn

Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Four: Association of Maya Ixil Women (ADMI) – New Dawn

5. The Library: A New Dawn

The ADMI library is the only library in Chajul. Students, teachers, and other people from Chajul and elsewhere visit the library. This project assists young people when they have to do research for papers. Since people don’t have money to buy books and since the library is helping to improve education, the townspeople are quite happy with the assistance ADMI provides.

We feel good being members of ADMI, because we are women and we are struggling with all our might. Here we learn and we work. We are happy and there is a climate of trust among us. It may be that we aren’t confident when we work with men because we know that men are the ones who give the orders. We women, working the way that we do, offer our opinions, discuss them for a while, and then we make the decision. We always take into account the opinion of each one of us. Even though we may give our opinions indirectly, we still share them. This is why we are happy to be working as women for a better life and on behalf of the community.