4.5 Eliminate all discrimination in education.
4.6 Universal literacy and numeracy.
4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship.

With travel restrictions lifted in mid-2021, the Rural Library Network again took up its work to update and reprint its 20-volume Enciclopedia Campesina. The collection, which gathers stories and knowledge from across the mountainous region surrounding the town of Cajamarca, is the cornerstone of the network’s literacy program.

Rural librarians keep the books in their homes both to lend to community members and to use to lead reading circles. The network also distributes to a growing number of school libraries. During COVID-19 lockdowns, small family libraries were developed as another way to reach readers and encourage reading.

The revised edition includes new stories and knowledge drawn from communities that have joined the network since the last edition was published. This project financed the production of volumes 5 through 9. Five hundred copies of each title were then distributed to nearly 400 remote rural libraries and 20 schools. A new initiative encourages young readers to read aloud to elders, who are often illiterate. At the same time elders are invited to share their wisdom with children and youth at the different schools and libraries where the Rural Library Network is active.

Heart-Links is grateful to Strathroy Rotary for their support of this project.

This Centre, run by ACIES, serves the children, youth and adults of Quiritimayo, a marginal neighbourhood in Cajamarca made up principally of Indigenous families who have recently migrated to the city. These families face increased racism and discrimination in the city as well as the dismissal of their culture. Children are often alone for long periods while their parents work (the public school day ends at 12:30 p.m.). To respond to this need, the centre offers afterschool education and homework support that values their Indigenous heritage.

This project will provide children with reading and writing workshops 6 days a week. As a special hands-on project, the children will each make a small bookcase they can take home with books to fill it. To learn about sustainability, they will plant and care for vegetables and herbs and learn about their traditional uses. A therapist will be available weekly for those children who are struggling.

In the wake of COVID-19, which kept schools closed for 2 years, educational support is needed more than ever. The centre prioritizes sustainability and care for the natural environment in its programs, using local natural resources and recycled and reused materials in their workshops.

Weekly craft and personal development workshops for women will offer a space for mutual support and empowerment as well as providing a way to generate income. Three community members will be employed as assistants, providing them with an income and experience.

Our thanks to the Peterborough KM Hunter Charitable Foundation for their support of this project.

Educational and nutritional gaps exacerbated by COVID-19 are the focus of this project.

In the impoverished rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe, Madre Oliva Association will provide these children with afterschool educational reinforcement and a nutritional snack 6 days a week. Families in greatest need will receive additional food aid to offset skyrocketing food prices. Therapists will offer workshops every two months to the children’s parents on topics such as mental health, how to detect learning disabilities, COVID-19, and parent-child relationships.

This project also includes purchase of a computer and printer to strengthen the ability of Madre Oliva Association to carry out this and other projects.

Our thanks to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada for their support of this project.

The families of San Isidro have come a long way since 2017, when they fled their community because of floods that damaged or destroyed their houses, lands, crops, animals, irrigation system, and water supply. With support from Heart-Links partner Centro Esperanza, they have installed a reliable, community water supply, developed environmentally sustainable practices such as making their own organic fertilizer, animal feed and biogas heaters, and established a community chicken hatchery. Families began with 5 chicks and now have 30 laying hens on average. Their community association, led by a board of 3 women and 5 men, is legally recognized, allowing them to negotiate improvements with the local municipality.

For 2022, the community had initially planned to expand their production of animal feed. However, steep inflation and food shortages nationwide led them to modify their proposal to include market crops. Drawing on expertise within the community, they will collectively invest in a hectare of land where they will grow passion fruit. They will also plant vegetable gardens and continue to care for and rely on their laying hens, chicks and newly acquired sheep for income and food. Centro Esperanza will provide workshops in relevant agricultural practices and standards, bookkeeping, and marketing.

Leadership training and promoting participation by women in leadership positions and decision making continues to be a focus of this project, as does strengthening community organization and collaborating with other communities. Involving youth is a new priority.

Listen to our podcast episode to learn more:

The pandemic has left communities in Peru struggling. Schools were closed for two years, family incomes plummeted, domestic violence increased, and diseases like dengue compounded the effects of COVID19. Now these communities are facing another crisis: food and fertilizer prices have skyrocketed.

In the Zaña Valley, our partner Latidos is working hard to help families get through this prolonged crisis. Latidos’ team of volunteers are:

• arranging monthly vaccination clinics, COVID19 monitoring, and primary health care in eight villages that have no health clinic
• providing schoolchildren, including children with learning disabilities, with afterschool educational support
• empowering rural women and teaching them how to grow and prepare nutritious food for their homes and the market

Through workshops on nutrition, vaccination campaigns, food aid for individuals with disabilities, health fairs, and workshops for rural women on how to grow healthy, organic food, Latidos will contribute to better health and food security in the valley.

On the educational front, Latidos will work with children in their community library, offer added reinforcement for children with learning disabilities, hold educational day camps in more rural areas, run fun online reading and writing contests (with prizes) that involve the whole family, work with teachers to improve their literacy teaching skills and hold books fairs.

16.6 develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
16.7 ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels
16.10 ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms

Taking advantage of virtual technology, Centro Santa Angela’s school for community leaders is expanding its reach this year to all of Peru. The school, which was founded in 2014 in the populous and rapidly growing municipality of José Leonardo Ortiz, Chiclayo, is dedicated to developing leadership that is democratic, transparent, inclusive and committed to human and community development. Also new this year, Centro Santa Angela has added modules on interculturality and on emotional health to the curriculum.

Incoming students will participate in a series of virtual workshops aimed at strengthening the ability of individuals and communities to participate fully in society. Topics include integrated human development, human rights, gender equality, and ethical, democratic and transformative leadership. Students put what they learn into practice by developing and leading community development projects in their community.

A permanent watchdog committee, made up of school graduates, will monitor and push for implementation of a Governing Agreement reached with municipal authorities.

Last year, Centro Santa Angela wrapped up five years of work in the marginal urban neighbourhood of Urrunaga, leaving in place an ecological library for children, an Eco Club for youth, a nursery run by women, environmental committees for each of the neighbourhood’s 21 streets and a coordinating committee that will work with neighbours and with city hall to ensure Urrunaga continues to take steps to protect the environment and promote sustainable, healthy habits.

In 2022, Centro Santa Angela’s work to “green” urban neighbourhoods in José Leonardo Ortíz has moved to the neglected and underserved pueblo joven of San Miguel, whose public park had barely a single plant growing in it. This project is the first half of a two-year initiative.

Centro Santa Angela will run programs for children and youth to teach them about the importance of protecting our environment as well as what they can do to help. Participants in these programs will develop their own environmental initiatives, such as cleaning garbage from their streets, recycling, planting trees and community gardens or rescuing parks, and also promote good practices among their peers. Organizing families into block committees dedicated to caring for and improving their immediate environment was very successful in Urrunaga, so the centre will follow the same strategy in San Miguel.

An environmental committee of community leaders will seek accreditation so they can press municipal authorities to assume their responsibilities in garbage collection and other basic services. Through these efforts, the people of San Miguel hope not only to make their neighbourhood a happier and healthier home for themselves and their children but also to set an example other neighbourhoods might follow.