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.

In 2024, Madre Oliva Association continued to close gaps in children’s education and contribute to food security in the impoverished rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe.

The program provided 25 boys and girls, ages 4 to 11, with personalized academic support, a nutritional snack, and recreational activities. Educators offered structured, nurturing environments adapted to the learning needs of each child. Parents were invited to attend sessions focused on learning support, play-based education, how to detect learning disabilities and nutrition.

Many parents reported feeling more confident in their ability to help their children succeed and more connected to other families facing similar challenges.

The project also provided food aid and medicine to the most impoverished families and individuals in the community.

Our thanks to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joesph of Canada 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.

Lingering gaps in children’s education were the focus of this project.

In the impoverished rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe, Madre Oliva Association provided 25 boys and girls, ages 4 to 11, with afterschool educational reinforcement and a nutritional snack 6 days a week. Preschoolers attended Mondays and Tuesdays while primary schoolchildren attended Wednesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays were dedicated to interactive learning in groups. And on Fridays and Sundays, the whole family was able to take part in arts and crafts. Therapists offered workshops every two months to the children’s parents on topics such as mental health, how to detect learning disabilities, and parent-child relationships.

For 3 children who had been unable to attend school because their parents could not afford to pay for the required supplies, travel or uniforms, these were provided.

Our thanks to the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada 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 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.

Latidos helped families in the Zaña Valley secure healthy food, masks and cleaning supplies and provided them with both educational support and mental health workshops and counselling. They boosted local vaccination efforts significantly by supplying volunteers and refreshments and carrying out information campaigns.

Latidos also continued to focus on food security and empowering women through workshops with women in personal development, organic gardening and make crafts they can sell.