Empowering children through storybooks

What started out as a new mother’s project has blossomed into a literacy program for CNMI children that has been adopted by the Lady Diann Torres Foundation and incorporated into its Language in Literacy Program.

“It really all started when I first had my child back in 2006,” first lady Diann Torres said. “The governor and I are very strong at making sure that we pass on the [Chamorro] language to our child.”

Torres, who was a teacher at that time, was free in the summer and considered coming up with her own Chamorro book since she was having a hard time finding such books. The book, AÅB CH yan mås, or ABC’s and More, a Chamorro picture-dictionary for children, was published in 2008.

She then had an epiphany of sorts: Why not continue to promote the Chamorro language by giving children the opportunity to become authors as well? And that’s how the program was born. It not only pushes for local language literacy among the youth, but empowers the children to express themselves and be culture ambassadors.

Fast forward to 2019, five children have become full-fledged published authors through the foundation: Adora Jay San Nicolas, who wrote Hafa Sinentete-mu; Coloma Castro, who wrote I Lina’ la Hu; Cielo Cithalli Gutierrez Long, writer of I Duendis; Jude Litulumar, writer of The Stick Dance: A Carolinian Tradition; and Leilani Attao, who wrote Maolik Kontra Baba’.

The books are available for sale for $10 each at the LDTF office in Susupe.

Through the Language in Literacy Program, children are encouraged to write stories about history, myths, and legends, and are given the opportunity to get published and become full-fledged authors.

“The first book is an emoji book by Adora San Nicolas,” said Torres. “[The kids] give us an idea of what they want to see in their book. So when they turn in their drawings, we take it, and we find an illustrator to make it even better.”

“We cannot do this without our bilingual teachers within their schools to push,” Torres added, giving credit to bilingual teachers who have all been instrumental in the program. The LDTF promotes the program through an annual Language in Literacy Young Author’s Writing Competition.

This opportunity to become an author applies to all children, and that they do not necessarily have to be in a bilingual class to join the competition.

LDTF has also opened the Language in Literacy program for an official sponsorship opportunity. There are two sponsorship levels: $2,000 for main sponsor and $1,000 for partner sponsor.

For information about the Language in Literacy program or to learn how to become an official sponsor of the published books under this program, email ladydianntorres@gmail.com or call (670) 235-5383.