An Ivy League inspiration: A community library finds a home in Mindanao

By Elaine Joy Edaya Degale

Before the Library, there was Merienda.

I founded Operation Merienda in 2020 while completing my graduate work at Teachers College, Columbia University.

My academic work examined philanthropy through the frameworks of human rights and peace education. I was interested in how philanthropic projects could provide resources to communities without treating the people receiving them simply as beneficiaries of charity, but instead as people with rights, dignity and agency.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Operation Merienda provided meals to frontline workers at 20 clinics and hospitals across SOCCSKSARGEN Region XII.

“Operation Merienda made us feel like we also mattered,” said a nurse in Javelosa Surallah Community Hospital.

When schools shifted to remote and modular learning, however, Operation Merienda’s priorities began to change.

Students without reliable internet connection, computers or printers faced significant barriers to participating in remote education. In response, Operation Merienda created an initiative called “Bridging the Digital Divide” which donated printer ink and paper to indigenous students in remote villages like the T’boli in Lambangan community.

As pandemic restrictions eased, we expanded the initiative once more. Our community programming included peace education activities like a Human Rights Festival at a local National Child Development Center daycare and Summer Reading Festivals designed in part to address learning and reading gaps that had widened during COVID-19.

“Through this Operation Merienda activity as parents we were able to see our children’s creative capabilities that we’ve never encountered before,” shared a parent at the inaugural Human Rights Festival.

‘Fundraising without losing your soul’

Last year, I spoke at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City during Maki+Fiesta, to discuss Operation Merienda’s practical application of principles found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. My talk was part of a panel called “Fundraising Without Losing Your Soul.”

After years of doing this work, I began to think that one answer was surprisingly simple: Build a lasting legacy by cultivating literary life in Santo Niño in South Cotabato, which had no public libraries and spaces for creativity to take flight. 

With enough fundraising, I was able to start Edaya’s Star Terrace Cafe, which became the first third space in the history of Santo Niño to have books accessible to the community. Then after attending the Philippine Book Fair hosted by the National Book Development Board (NBDB), I met with publishers and decided to build a library and publishing house. By April, we had produced five locally made zines and books written by people in the community, launching our zines at Ateneo de Cagayan, Xavier University.

A Book Nook is born in Mindanao

After graduating from Columbia University, I became a researcher at Research Foundation City University of New York (CUNY), and later a lecturer at community colleges within CUNY. Operation Ink Library and Publishing House became the second phase of that work, expanding its focus to literacy, education, publishing and community access to books.

In July 2026, the NBDB activated 25 new Book Nook sites across the Philippines, bringing its network to 163 areas nationwide, according to BusinessMirror. Five of 25 book nook site awardees came from Mindanao.

Operation Ink Library in coordination with LGU Poblacion Sto. Niño is among those new Mindanao sites. Through Operation Ink’s Library & Publishing House, we have produced locally made zines and brought them to literary and cultural events in Kathmandu, Nepal; Lisbon, Portugal; and Queens, New York, connecting work produced in Mindanao with international and Filipino diasporic audiences.

NBDB described Operation Ink Library as “an emerging community-based model and a place where books, conversations and creativity can naturally come together.”

In New York, we are slated to receive an award from SOCCSKSARGEN USA, a Filipino diasporic organization supporting the Region XII. My own work as a writer and community advocate was previously recognized during the T’nalak Festival, when South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. named me a Most Outstanding South Cotabateño; the accompanying cash award was reinvested into community literary projects.