See Your Impact: ACIES Launches a Powerful New Book Written by Children in Rural Peru
June 17, 2025
At Heart-Links, we often talk about “accompaniment”; standing alongside our partners as they dream, build, and transform their communities. Today, I am thrilled to share one of those dreams brought to life: a powerful new children’s book created by ACIES, one of our partner organizations working in the rural highlands of Cajamarca, Peru.
The book is called Voces y expresiones de la quebrada que quiero (Voices and Expressions of the Ravine That I Love), and it is as beautiful as it is urgent. Entirely written and illustrated by children from the communities of Quiritimayo and Pomabamba, this publication captures their reflections, observations, and hopes for the ravine that runs through their neighbourhoods; once a source of beauty and play, now deeply polluted.
Thanks to your support, the book and programs that led to this book, are made possible.
“The literacy was grounded in their own experience,” shared Gordon Price, Co-Chair of our Peru Projects Committee. “The children reflected on how they felt about the creek, did drawings, made their own personal books… Isabel [Gutiérrez, ACIES director] has combined those into a single publication. The book is amazing…it’s powerful, it’s full of the children’s reflections.”
Why the Ravine?
ACIES launched this project, Quiere la Quebrada (“Love the Ravine”), to help children build literacy skills, strengthen their environmental awareness, and reclaim their voice through storytelling. From the outset, the approach was immersive: children participated in guided expeditions to the ravine, took note of what they saw — piles of garbage, smoke, even dead animals — and asked the tough questions:
Why is this happening?How can we change it?
These observations became the seeds for their stories.
“La quebrada, antes clara y radiante, ahora con basura abundante. Su belleza se perdió, sin voz ni sonido que calma. Hoy, su silencio, es un vacío que hiela el alma.” (The ravine, once clear and radiant, now full of garbage. Its beauty is lost, without voice or sound to soothe. Today, its silence is a void that chills the soul.)
— Voces y expresiones de la quebrada que quiero, ACIES, 2025
Through these stories the children developed critical thinking, creativity, and a sense of agency over the spaces they live in.
Real Change, Real Community
With your generosity, ACIES was able to deliver weekly literacy workshops to over 30 children and adolescents, offer access to a cultural and educational hub at the Quiritimayo Cultural Center, and publish 1,000 copies of this stunning bilingual book. Each family in the participating communities will receive a free copy.
But the impact didn’t stop there. As detailed in the final project report, your support also helped fund:
Weaving workshops for women and youth, turning traditional skills into both therapy and income.
A psychological support group, coordinated by a local woman and weaver, fostering emotional wellbeing and intergenerational dialogue.
Teacher training and international exchange, connecting rural educators across Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico.
Community authorship, giving local youth like Esgard — once bedridden — the encouragement and tools to write, draw, and re-engage with the world. His mother said:
“A desk and a chair got my Esgard out of bed and smiling every day.”
“The projects that Isabel submits are incredible,” Gordon added. “The reports that she sends are so well drafted. Photographs that accompany them really tell a clear story.”
📚 You’re Invited: Celebrate This Story with Us
We’re excited to invite you, our community of supporters, to join ACIES for the virtual launch of Voces y expresiones de la quebrada que quiero.
Come hear directly from those involved in the project, meet the facilitators behind the work, and see how your donations are helping shape a generation of readers, writers, and environmental defenders.
When you give to Heart-Links, you give more than funding. You give the gift of voice. Of creativity. Of transformation.
