Our team visited all three regions where Heart-Links’ partners work: Cajamarca, in the northeastern Andes; the Zaña Valley, in the central coast lowlands; and the Chiclayo Metropolitan Area, also in the central coast lowlands, one hour south from Zaña.

In Cajamarca, we met with the volunteers who run the Rural Libraries Network, a 54-year-old association that supplies books to almost 300 remote libraries across Cajamarca and adjacent provinces. In addition to publishing books, the network promotes literacy and records and preserves traditional knowledge and culture. A principle tool is the Enciclopedia Campesina, a project financed by Heart-Links. We stayed at the Rural Libraries guesthouse in Cajamarca. The building is also the home of the main library, offices and meeting rooms.

Also in Cajamarca is ACIES, a community development organization that works in the impoverished city neighborhood of Quiritimayo. In the Quiritimayo Cultural Centre, ACIES offers an afterschool program that includes educational support, ecological workshops and cleanups, reading circles, writing groups, and art classes. ACIES also works with women, delivering workshops in mental health self-care and artisanal training. ACIES runs similar programs in the rural village of Pomabamba, as well an alternative school for impoverished children and youth, where they also learn about water conservation, gardening, and raising small animals.

In Zaña, we met the members of Latidos. In communities up and down the Zaña Valley, this association runs afterschool programs, breakfast and lunch programs, mental health workshops, entrepreneurial training for women and reforestation and forest protection. Latidos is strongly involved in the local business community, including agrobusiness, and works with them to practice corporate social responsibility, such as hiring locally. We stayed in the lovely Latidos guesthouse.

Our other partner in Zaña is Madre Oliva Association. They run an afterschool program in the rural hamlet of Nuevo Mocupe, where children receive educational support and recreation. The association also delivers food aid, clothing, medication and mental health training and counselling  to approximately 20 vulnerable families.

Finally, we went to the bustling metropolis of Chiclayo, and stayed in a charming modest downtown hotel. We first met with members of Centro Esperanza. This agency runs numerous programs from their Chiclayo office and premises, but the program Heart-Links supports is in Coloche, a rural community in Lambayeque. There, Centro Esperanza has started a women’s farming collective called MUFUM (Women for a Better Future). The women of MUFUM raise and market fast-growing guinea pigs. Centro Esperanza has provided production training, ecological workshops, leadership development and mental health programs. The project is thriving.

Our final visit was with Centro Santa Angela. Founded 41 years ago by the Ursuline Sisters of Chatham, the centre promotes ecological communities in the impoverished urban district of José Leonardo Ortiz, assisting local residents to rescue parkland, develop community spirit, and end harmful ecological practices. In its downtown office, Centro Santa Angela runs programs, also sponsored by Heart-Links, aimed at ending family violence and misogyny, developing community leaders and good citizens, and exercising vigilance against corruption.

It was wonderful to see the positive impact our partners are making in the lives of hundreds of children, youth, women and men in northern Peru. We can say with confidence that your donations to Heart-Links are helping create a more just world.

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.

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!

“The creativity and compassion that was apparent in our partner’s response to the pandemic has been unbelievable.”
—Gordon Price, co-chair of Heart-Links’ Peru Projects Committee

Heart-Links volunteers, donors, partners and guests connected via Zoom last Sunday for our 2021 annual general meeting, a moving and meaningful hour filled with gratitude and pride but also grief.

There’s no denying 2020 was a very difficult year. The COVID-19 pandemic caused and continues to cause great suffering in Peru. That’s why the work Heart-Links’ partners carry out with your help is so important.

Your donations helped fund 13 projects in Peru totalling just over $99,000:

• 31% on literacy and education
• 23% on leadership
• 19% on gender equality
• 14% on the environment
• 13% on Covid19-specific help

Your support allowed us to continue to fund our partners’ essential ongoing projects, but you went above and beyond this past year, responding to the increased needs the pandemic had caused as well. 

Below, Gordon Price describes how both Heart-Links and our partners responded and adapted despite the immense uncertainty and hardships of the past year. All of us remain committed to improving the lives of people in northern Peru and to building a more just and equitable world.

Throughout June, we will be sharing highlights of last Sunday’s meeting. Next up: words and images from Latidos director, Flor Reaño Segura.

General elections last Sunday highlighted public frustration with a political class whose dealings have aggravated the health crisis. Six presidential frontrunners competed for popular support but none of them received the 50% plus one required to avoid a runoff election in June.

Preliminary results indicate the face-off in June will be between Keiko Fujimori, who faces criminal charges for money laundering, and Pedro Castillo, a populist who has promised a shift to the left economically but also reversals in some policies that advance the rights of women and same-sex couples.

(Listen to our Tapestry 2030 podcast to learn how Heart-Links partner Centro Santa Angela
is fostering a different kind of leadership in Peru.)

Many observers see another winner: more than 2 millions voters (over 12%) left their ballots blank. Since voting in Peru is mandatory, this is one way voters demonstrate their opposition to the candidates or to the process itself.

After lining up at the polls, many voters then went to line up to buy oxygen tanks for sick relatives. Unlike in Canada, when people in Peru are hospitalized, they usually have to provide supplies like oxygen themselves. Oxygen costs about $7 per cubic metre. COVID-19 tests range from $50 to $75 each. (Minimum wage is $370 per month.)

The human and economic devastation wrought by COVID-19 plus the failures of the country’s leaders have many people despairing for the future. “I feel like we’ve hit rock bottom,” one of Heart-Links partners told us. “It’s going to take years to dig ourselves out of this hole.”

But the commitment to building a different future is also there. In the coming year, our partners will continue to help the people in their communities through programs that offer emotional and material support and a path forward.

• Centro Esperanza will help the people of San Isidro develop their sustainable chicken hatchery.
• Latidos will support families and individuals in need in the Zaña Valley with educational materials, nutritious food and mental health counselling.
• The Rural Libraries Network is investing in technology so they can continue to support literacy and preserve and promote Indigenous knowledge in remote communities in Cajamarca.

These and other vital programs and projects are what your donations make possible.

Consider a donation to Heart-Links today.

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

Heart-Links’ donors have contributed to this growth. Every year, your dollars fund projects that build literacy and math skills in children, youth and adults and offer quality educational supports that draw on and respect local knowledge.

More than one quarter of our project financing this year supports programs in Peru that strengthen literacy. These 2020 programs are

• Expression in Drawing, Words & Weaving
• Live and Travel with Words
• New Edition of the Enciclopedia Campesino

Education is a major component of many other Heart-Links’ projects as well.

The events of the last year have underscored the importance of universal literacy. People’s health and safety depended on being able to access life-saving information.

However, as the United Nations observes, “During COVID-19, in many countries, adult literacy programs were absent in the initial education response plans, so most adult literacy programs that did exist were suspended, with just a few courses continuing virtually, through TV and radio, or in open air spaces.”

To bridge these gaps, Heart-Links’ partners were quick to add door-to-door delivery of educational materials, virtual workshops and support groups, psychological counselling and check-ins by telephone to their programs to ensure their work to improve literacy and education continued.

“On this International Day, I thus invite all those involved in education to redouble their investments and mobilize all their resources to unleash the potential of each individual in the service of a shared world.”

— Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director General

Heart-Links invites you to celebrate this day and to continue to invest in literacy in Peru. With your help, we are building a more just world.