Humphrey Scholar launches new community library initiative

Dr Soraya Faculo has launched a new initiative to develop eleven community libraries in the Northern Philippines. Dr. Faculo – who was a Humphrey Fellow to Vanderbilt University in 2010/11 – has recently attended the inauguration of the first of these libraries in Dalligan, in the Kiangan region of the Philippines.

The inauguration of the Dalligan Community Library is part of a broader initiative of Dr. Soraya Faculo, Superintendent of the Division of Schools of the Ifugao, to develop twelve community libraries in various areas of the province.

Dalligan Community Library, one of the eleven such libraries, is housed at the Dalligan Elementary School, a barangay school in a small valley across the Kiangan River that divides Kiangan town and its other remote barangays in the Lagawe area, the capital town.

The attendance of Dr. Faculo, Superintendent of the Division of Schools of the Ifugao , at the February 22 inauguration of the community library was the first-ever time that a school superintendent visited Dalligan, one of the remotest barangays of Kiangan, reached only by walking a short, paved road from the highway that leads to the Banawe and then hiking along a yet-to-be paved barangay road on hillsides and footpaths of mud and caked earth. 

Kiangan municipal mayor, the Hon. Raldis Andrei Allaga Bulayungan thru hus representative joined Dr. Faculo in going to Dalligan to inaugurate the community library.

The idea behind the Dalligan Community Library began with Dr. Faculo persuading individuals, organizations, members of the private sector, and government officials to buy into the initiative to develop community libraries.

When Dr. Faculo went to the United States for her Fulbright Scholarship, she observed the importance of community libraries in that country. With these libraries, people are encouraged to read and to be informed of what is happening to their communities and the world.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, schoolchildren’s learning all over the country was affected. One way to solve these learning deficiencies is to give these schoolchildren access to as many supplementary reading materials as possible.

These ideas prodded Dr. Faculo to reach out to those she thought could help in realizing the putting up of community libraries.

In July 2022, Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, a United States Fulbright scholar on a visiting lecturer appointment at the School of Advanced Studies of Saint Louis University reached out to Dr. Faculo to ask permission to start his fieldwork research on the policy and practice of Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in the Philippines. 

That meeting between Dr. Faculo and Dr. Agcaoili led to the latter's commitment to helping put up the community library of Dalligan, where Dr. Agcaoili had chosen to center his initial fieldwork.

Coordination and collaboration work among the barangay officials led by Chairman Prodencio Linagga, the schoolteachers, the Ifugao Division of School, and the office of the mayor of Kiangan began immediately. 

The barangay officials must commit to allocating a space that is accessible to students. That space was attached to the school. 

Erecting the library followed the ammuyo, a sharing of materials and labor by the community members. Some help came from the local government and other individuals. Their assistance allowed the community to build its library. 

Through Dr. Agcaoili, the University of the Philippines Baguio Namnama student organization has committed to helping to procure used books for Dalligan’s schoolchildren.

For his part, Dr. Agcaoili has committed to sending books and other instructional materials to the Dalligan Community Library, now serving as one of the centers of learning of that remote place that has earned the monicker, nagpanawan.

Nagpanawan tells of a place left behind by its people.

The hope is that in the years ahead, with two Fulbright scholars—Dr. Faculo and Dr. Agcaoili—joining hands in realizing this dream of a community library, the people of Dalligan will never leave this place of their memory, soul, body, spirit, and mind.