The Enciclopedia is a series of 20 volumes that gathers stories and knowledge from Indigenous communities of the region. The new volumes will now be distributed to those same communities—almost 400 of them. Through informal gatherings and reading circles, community members use the books to help each other learn to read and write. These exchanges foster self-esteem, revitalize cultural traditions and build community—between young and old and between different communities.

Reconnecting through Libraries

The Rural Libraries Network also supplies more than 20 schools in the region with books from the series. And a new program is reconnecting youth with elders by inviting them to speak at the libraries. These initiatives foster intergenerational exchange so that young Peruvians know more about their land and traditions.

Heart-Links is proud to fund this revised edition of the Enciclopedia Campesina. Your donations are promoting literacy in remote rural communities and bringing young Peruvians knowledge of their roots.

Asociación Civil Esperanza (ACIES) works in two locations in the province of Cajamarca: the rural village of Pomabamba and a marginal urban neighbourhood called Quiritimayo.

In Pomabamba, Heart-Links’ donors fund a project with 13 Indigenous women from the community who meet together weekly to share experiences, learn from each other and offer mutual support. They are also developing and applying their skills as knitters to produce crafts to supplement their incomes.

The women recently signed a contract to sell the nativity figures they knit in Germany.

ACIES works with children in both Pomabamba and Quiritimayo, providing afterschool activities that support learning which incorporates Indigenous and community knowledge and values. Using recycled materials, the children made books on different themes to learn about themselves and the world around them: myself, my family, my community, my animals, health and nutrition, and my school.

In this video, some of the children show their books:

At a recent presentation to the Rotary Club of Strathroy, Rita Moker, of the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca, said these words: “It takes many hands and many hearts to do this work.”

She was referring to the 400 or so volunteer librarians who take care of the books distributed to them by the Rural Libraries Network, who loan them to members of their communities and lead reading circles. She was also referring to the Network’s volunteer regional coordinators, who deliver the books to the librarians, and to the team in Cajamarca, also volunteers, who edit and design the books.

But Rita was not just talking about the people in Peru who make this work possible. She was talking about the Rotary Club of Strathroy, whose members wanted to know more about the libraries and pooled donations from their membership and supporters to help this work continue. And she was talking about you.

This is the essence of solidarity—working together, each contibuting in the ways we best can. Many hands. Many hearts.

The Rural Libraries Network works to advance Sustainable Development Goal #4: Quality Education. One of their most important publications is the Enciclopedia Campesina, is a series of 20 books containing Indigenous knowledge and traditions from this region in the northern Andes. The books preserve, share and value this cultural and communal heritage, which for centuries has been the target of racism, colonialism and neglect. Heart-Links is currently funding a revised edition of the encylclopedia that includes new stories and knowledge drawn from communities that have joined the network since the last edition was published with Heart-Links’ help almost 20 years ago.

As community coordinator Sergio Juamán pointed out during the presentation to Strathroy Rotary, this project is about more than reading. “It’s about why we read,” he said. “We read to foster solidarity, with the people and the world around us.” For the Rural Libraries Network, reading is another way of building community.

On December 7, hours before what was to be his third impeachment hearing in the short 17 months he has occupied the office, President Pedro Castillo moved to dissolve Congress. He was arrested the same day, and shortly afterward Vice President Dina Bularte assumed his office. She is Peru’s sixth president in six years.

On learning of Castillo’s arrest, thousands of Peruvians took to the streets to protest his ouster. At least seven Castillo supporters have died so far in the violence.

Chronic instability has had and continues to have dire consequences for the Peruvian population. Any action by government is stalled, services are delayed. Much-needed development and reform is postponed indefinately. Civic unrest, which at least initially was concentrated mostly in the South, has disrupted supply lines and increased already high transporation fares. Food is not getting to market.

For our partners in Zaña, Chiclayo and Cajamarca, the current crisis has made already difficult conditions much more difficult. They know that vulnerable populations are always the most hurt. They also see that their programs to foster ethical and democratic leadership, to build resilient sustainable communities and to attend to basic needs, including food, among other initiatives, help people in their communities ride out crises like these and plant the seeds of a better future.

Heart-Links expresses our solidarity with the Peruvian people, who deserve so much better from their representatives in government. We are encouraged by the compassion, integrity and commitment of people like the leaders of Madre Oliva Association, Latidos, ACIES, Rural Libraries, Centro Santa Angela and Centro Esperanza—our partners. Their work offers hope for a better world for Peruvians and inspiration for people everywhere.

The House of Peruvian Literature (Casa de Literatura Peruana) has awarded its 2021 prize—given each year to outstanding writers and researchers of Peruvian letters—to Alfredo Mires, director of the Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca. The network is one of Heart-Links’ oldest partner. Previous prize recipients include Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Germán Belli, and Carmen Ollé.

“Throughout its 50 years, the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca has given new impetus to the creation and circulation of books, also contributing to the recovery and revaluation of community memory and oral traditions through the Enciclopedia Campesina,” the awards jury wrote. “This project questions and reinvents the dynamics of compiling community knowledge, proposing new ways of valuing the poetic word and publications made by and for the community.”

The Enciclopedia Campesina is a collection of 20 volumes that gathers stories and knowledge from across the mountainous region surrounding the town of Cajamarca. Heart-Links financed its first printing 20 years ago and is now supporting publication of a new edition that includes stories and knowledge from other communities that have joined the network.

The network now boasts more than 200 titles that are distributed among 500 remote communities and 50 schools in Cajamarca, Lambayeque, La Libertad and Amazonas. Volunteer librarians keep the books in their homes, making them available to the neighbours. They also lead reading circles. Volunteer coordinators deliver the books to the librarians.

“Each coordinator is in charge of 10 to 15 libraries, and it is an intense job,” Alfredo Mires told El País, which published an article about the decision to honour him. “Because they are not just book distributors: they have to leave the work of the chacra (land) and sometimes walk for many hours or days and stay in the community—to meet with the children, see what population there is of children with disabilities, teach them how to make a reading circle.”

Javier Huamán, one of the networks’ longest-serving coordinators, must travel three hours by bus from Cajamarca to Bambamarca and then continue on foot another four hours to reach his home in Luychocolpa. “Before the pandemic, I would go out for three days to coordinate in my area: to bring them new books and pick up the others, the books rotate like people, like food,” he told El País.

The award ceremony is to be streamed live (in Spanish) on Friday, February 11, at 7 p.m. EST. If you’d like to join, tune in to the Casa de Literatura Peruana’s Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Want to learn more about the Rural Libraries Network?

Join us on February 10, at 7 p.m. EST for Share the Love @ Home, where Lola Paredes, part of the Rural Libraries’ leadership team, will speak live from Peru about their work. Free registration here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GhQVJaILQWCUvnaj-PDKNQ

When: Thursday, February 10, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM EST

Where: Zoom Webinar (registration link to come)

Special Guests:

• Lola Paredes, of Rural Libraries Network (from Cajamarca)
• Flor Reaño, of Latidos (from the Zaña Valley)
• Erla Hoyos, of Centro Santa Angela (from José Leonardo Ortiz, Chiclayo)

Proceeds from this FREE-ADMISSION virtual event will go to supporting the work of these and our other three Peruvian partner organizations in the coming year.

DO YOU WANT TO HELP SHARE THE LOVE?

There are many ways to get involved.

• Join us on February 10. Visit this EVENT page to register (registration link to come).
• Visit our online silent auction. Auction goes live February 3.
• Donate a silent auction prize. If you have an item or service you’d like to donate, contact info@heart-links.org
• Own a business? Consider sponsoring our event. Contact info@heart-links.org for more information.
• SPREAD THE WORD!

That was the sentiment expressed by one of our partners during Heart-Links’ recent and first-ever Solidarity Trip Reunion. Last Saturday, alumni of our Solidarity and Work/Awareness Trips connected by zoom with some of the people they’d met during those visits to share memories of their time together and what it meant to each of them.

We also talked about our lives today and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in our communities.

Friends from our partner organizations in Zaña, Chiclayo and Cajamarca spoke about their memories of sharing their work and their daily lives with visitors from Canada, noting that such exchanges have strengthened their organizations and enriched their work. Delicia Romero recalled that she has never missed a single one, from the very first visits led by Sister Janet Zadorsky in the 1990s to the 2018 Solidarity Trip—the last before the pandemic hit.

Zaña artist Dimas Gil also dropped by to say hello, as did Lucho and Cristina and family, tuning in from the hostel where trip participants often stay.

For the Canadian visitors, the trips have also had a profound impact. Whether working in a community kitchen, helping to build a community-designed playground or climbing a sacred mountain in Cajamarca, trip participants said they learned as much about themselves and their communities in Canada as they did about the people and places they visited.

Several participants said they were awakened to “the power of community,” a lesson that led them to greater community involvement on their return home. Susan Price, a librarian herself, was especially impressed by the work of the Rural Libraries Network. “They’re exactly what libraries should be,” she said. For other participants, the trip informed or inspired their career choices.

Concern about the ravages caused in Peru by the pandemic was top of mind. One of our partners is currently recovering from the illness. Another had to miss the reunion because she was busy trying to buy oxygen for sick relatives and to get a friend into the overcrowded ICU. In Cajamarca, the virus has now spread to the remote mountain villages. The hardship and pain the pandemic is causing our partners, their families and friends and their communities was clear.

But the affection among these old acquaintances and the joy of jointly revisiting significant moments in their lives was also palpable. It’s one reason Heart-Links is finding ways like this so we can listen to and learn from each other and express our solidarity even when in-person visits are not possible.

When: March 31 at 11:00 a.m. EDT (10:00 a.m. in Peru)

Where: Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89381373646?pwd=MzFmQ2pSakY2N0JES0lkWHh0YlBNZz09

Rural Libraries invites you to make your own offering, in whatever part of the world you live in, “to the earth, to our deceased, and our sacred mountains.” They explain:

“The All’pata paguikun is a very ancient ceremony to render our affection to the earth, to the apus or sacred mountains and to our deceased. And it comes from always, when there were no churches or doctrines here. So your Celebration does not mean renouncing the creed that each person has but, on the contrary, it enriches it. It is foolish to qualify this ceremony as idolatry. And furthermore, as an elder named Gandhi said, ‘By practicing tolerance for other beliefs, we acquire a more real understanding of our own.’”

Learn more about All’pata paguikun here (English) or here (Spanish).

Founded in 1971 by Father John Medcalf, today the Rural Libraries Network comprises a web of more than 500 tiny libraries housed in the homes of dedicated volunteer librarians throughout the mountains surrounding Cajamarca and neighbouring provinces in northern Peru. Librarians both house the reading materials and take leadership in establishing reading circles for young and old to promote literacy, education and pride in the Indigenous campesino culture. More than 50,000 rural readers have enjoyed the books Rural Libraries has published.

Heart-Links has partnered with the network since our own founding 26 years ago. In 2006, our donors funded publication of the first Enciclopedia Campesina, and we are currently funding a new revised edition. The Enciclopedia Campesina is a collection of 20 volumes that gathers stories and knowledge from across the region of Cajamarca. It is the cornerstone of the Rural Library Network’s literacy program. The revised edition will add stories and knowledge from communities who have joined the Network in the intervening years.

nada nos separa si la tierra nos junta
nothing can separate us if the earth unites us

• No poverty
• Zero Hunger
• Good Health and Well-being
• Quality Education
• Gender Equality
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

To celebrate, Heart-Links is taking part in a host of #IDW2021 activities, and starting today, you can, too! Here’s what’s on our calendar:

SUNDAY

Bidding is open now at our Share the Love @ Home online silent auction. Win spectacular prizes and support Heart-Links projects in Peru. It’s a win-win. Auction closes end of day Friday.
START BIDDING HERE

If you speak Spanish, tune in at 4 p.m. today to Radio Western’s La Voz Hispana (94.9FM) to hear Heart-Links chat with guest host José Merino about why international cooperation is important.

MONDAY

The Ontario Council of International Cooperation’s multimedia storytelling initiative Tapestry 2030 launches in the wee hours Monday morning. First up in this series focused on the future of international cooperation and global solidarity is Bhutan Canada Foundation and a conversation about Building Sustainable Tourism in Bhutan. Subscribe to the series here or here or anywhere else you listen to podcasts so you can also catch Heart-Links’ episode when it airs later this week.

If you want to learn more about the series and the multimedia artists and organizations involved, join us and other OCIC members at 12 noon for a lunchtime launch event.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER HERE

THURSDAY

Listen to Tapestry 2030 to hear Heart-Links chat with Erla Hoyos, of Centro Santa Angela, about Leadership in Action in Peru. The episode airs at midnight here and here and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. (Don’t forget to subscribe so you can hear two episodes a week all the way to International Women’s Day.)

FRIDAY

It’s finally here! Share the Love @ Home starts on zoom webinar at 7 p.m. sharp.
REGISTER FREE HERE

For the first time ever, our partners in Peru will join us for our annual free-admission fiesta: Delicia Romero and Cecilia Odar, of Madre Oliva Association will speak to us from Zaña; Isabel Gutiérrez, of ACIES, will join from Cajamarca, and Fely Ramírez from Centro Esperanza in Chiclayo will take part, too. All four women will speak about the difficult year just past and the needs their organizations hope to address in 2021 as Peru faces the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Live from Zaña, Yim Rodríguez will enchant with Afro-Peruvian music from the region. Both musician and visual artist, Yim is best known in London for painting the mural that graces King’s University library.

This is also the last day for bidding in our online silent auction. Get those bids in—or make a donation. We can get involved and help make this a more just world. Our silent auction closes when the clock strikes 12.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT WEEK,
FROM HEART-LINKS TO YOU!

At the end of a very hard 2020, our partner ACIES spread their message of hope and solidarity not only within the Indigenous communities where they work but all the way to Canada.

They sent us holiday greetings from Pomabamba and ushered in the new year with greetings from Quiritimayo. We would like to share those greetings with you.

ACIES offers Indigenous children and adults programs that help improve their quality of life and their levels of education through personal and community development. ACIES runs the Alternative Campesino School in the rural community of Pomobamba and an afterschool program of alternative education in the urban neighbourhood of Quiritimayo. Members of ACIES are volunteers—students and professionals—from a range of disciplines.

Would you like to learn more about ACIES and the work Heart-Links supports in Cajamarca? Join us at Share the Love @ Home and meet ACIES director Isabel Gutiérrez, who will tell us more about her organization and the people they work with.

REGISTER HERE