"That the experience is not lost"

Elizabeth Olano Díaz is a teacher and member of the Communications Team at "Sacred Heart" Educative Institute, in Jaen. After participating in our Network's Co-Libris Project, Elizabeth was integrated as a volunteer in the Encyclopedia Campesina Project. Here we share a charming testimony from her:

"Reading is a very important process that allows the reader to put themselves in contact with the author; it is a process in which both interact and share ideas, feelings, attitudes and distinct experiences. It is to find yourself, it is an open door to another world, to new worlds and new cultures. And as a process of interaction, it also enables enrichment, to improve as a person and to know how to get to know others.

Thus the contribution of the Network of Rural Libraries of Cajamarca is very important. In my case it has helped a lot because it has allowed me to get in touch with new people, share new experiences and get to know my own community. Perhaps, because I live in town, I can now learn more about the people from rural areas, all the baggage, the range of experiences that are very rich, and I knew them somewhat because of my mother – as she is from the countryside also, her origin is the countryside - I have got to know many things and this has allowed me to relive what I knew as a child. I have relived it, little by little. Yes, it has helped me a lot.

My challenge is where I work: that the students manage to collect all this wealth, to put themselves in contact especially with the wealth that the people from the countryside have, with their origins: that they do not lose their history, that they do not lose these customs, these experiences. That they manage to collect and transmit to others. And that they value all of this".