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.