In 2025 ACIES built on their work over the last two years to “Love the Ravine” by helping Indigenous children and their families learn about and care for their immediate environment. Families and children in Quiritimayo and Pomobamba planted gardens, recycled and reused materials, started composting and took part in a cleanup day in each community.

Children in both communities recounted their experiences in a weekly comic strip that was shared with their families and the broader community. Painting and craft workshops took place as well.

In a new initiative, two Indigenous elders took part, sharing their knowledge of medicinal plants and ancestral stories. The children’s grandparents were invited to share their knowledge, stories and games, too.

The project also funded craft and taxtile workshops with 15 women in Quiritimayo and 15 in rural Pomabamba. The women sold their creations at quarterly municipal fairs and through a new online store.

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

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

The Rural Library Network continues 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 in nearly 400 remote communities 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. Librarians in the network encourage young readers to read aloud to elders, who are often illiterate, and elders are invited to share their wisdom with children and youth at the different schools and libraries where the Rural Library Network is active.

The revised edition includes new stories and knowledge drawn from communities that have joined the network since the last edition was published. This project will finance the production of volumes 10 through 13. Five hundred copies of each title will then be printed and distributed.

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 project, run by ACIES, took as its theme loving and caring for the Quiritimayo neighbourhood, which is built on a steep ravine on the outskirts of Cajamarca.

Through guided explorations, 30 children who attend the afterschool program at Quiritimayo Cultural Centre observed the environmental degradation of their local stream and used what they learned to inspire original storybooks. They wrote and illustrated their own narratives — part autobiography, part environmental testimony — culminating in the powerful collection Voices and Expressions of the Ravine That I Love. The book has been distributed to their familes, schools and libraries.

Children also participated in campaigns to clean up their neighbourhood, grew and cared for plants and helped make a mural that celebrates children at the centre and the natural world.  Through idividualized learning plans, they developed their reading and writing skills but also pride in themselves, their culture and their community.

The project also funded knitting circles and gender workshops with 10 women in Quiritimayo and 15 in rural Pomabamba, who in turn began to teach a second generation of 15 knitters, both boys and girls. The women have sold their products locally and in Germany.

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

4.5 Eliminate all discrimination in education.
4.6 Universal literacy and numeracy.
4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship.
4.c Increase the supply of qualified teachers in developing countries.

This centre, run by ACIES, had 3 lines of action:

• help children and youth express themselves in drawing and words
• empower women through small income generation projects and mutual support
• work with teachers and volunteers to develop and share practices and strategies in alternative education

Participants came from both the rural hamlet of Pomabamba and from an underserved urban neighbourhood in Cajamarca. The project reflected the Indigenous Andean culture of the region.

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

“Reading is like food for the mind. I had never read, for example, José María Arguedas or Nelson Mandela, from another part of the world . . . For me, Rural Libraries showed me that we have to fight for inclusion and try to help each other and by doing so we can recover our culture, which has been taken from us.”
—Javier Huamán

Javier Huamán is now coordinator general of the Rural Libraries Network.

This two-year project initially provided funding to print 1000 copies of a revised edition of each of first 8 titles of the Enciclopedia Campesina. The Enciclopedia is a collection of 20 volumes that gathers stories and knowledge from across the mountainous region surrounding the town of Cajamarca. It is the cornerstone of the Rural Library Network’s literacy program.

With the advent of COVID-19, the project underwent several changes. With printer and distribution channels shut down for most of 2020 and into 2021, the Network decided to reduce the number of copies printed to 500 copies of each of the first 5 volumes and focus on building their digital library. They have also provided rural librarians with cell phones to facilitate communication and support.

Using the Rural Library Network’s publications, members of almost 400 remote Indigenous communities help each other learn to read and write in small informal settings and reading circles. These exchanges foster self-esteem, revitalize cultural traditions and build community—between young and old and between different communities.

This project, run by ACIES, had 3 lines of action:

• develop the capacity of youth and children to express themselves in drawing and words
• work with rural women to explore cultural expression through reading, storytelling and handicrafts
• develop and share practices and strategies in alternative education with volunteers and teachers

Participants came from both the rural hamlet of Pomabamba and from an underserved urban neighbourhood in Cajamarca. The project reflected the Indigenous Andean culture of the region.

When COVID-19 struck, ACIES innovated. Incorporating the children’s stories and drawings and the women’s knitting, they produced videos, books, a music CD and even an interactive board game to keep the learning going. they also captured the experience in a book for teachers who wish to adopt their approach to education.

Lambayeque, a province whose population has changed dramatically in recent years because of increased internal migration, brings together Afro-Peruvians, Indigenous people and Mestizos (people of European and Indigenous descent). Yet schools, in their practices and their curriculum, do not reflect this rich cultural heritage, privileging Mestizo culture and its European roots over that of other groups, who often face discrimination and exclusion.

After the schools have finished their training, they will make presentations about their experiences. A permanent committee made up of members of civil society and government will work to raise awareness among the general public and to develop policies that favour an intercultural approach to education.

The centre offers these children an after-school program that respects and values their Indigenous heritage. Children draw on the ancestral knowledge of their community, create new knowledge through hands-on projects, and practise independence and sustainability by growing a garden and using its produce. For many years, the school operated out of a church hall, but a change in management meant they had to move out. Through this project, ACIES is constructing a facility that will serve as the centre’s permanent home in Quiritimayo.

Heart-Links is grateful to the late Raymond “Pete” Cheele and his wife, Mabel, who pre-deceased him, whose bequest contributed significantly to this project. We also thank the Education Aid Committee of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association for its support.