The star of time

Seed of love turned into a path.

Blood of my blood.

Dreams of my dreams.

Light with eyes, eyes of light.

Life force alive, clamour, tenderness.

Grace of ingenuous gods.

Stone, promise, star.

Anarchic and sincere sky.

Sleepless dance of arrows.

Light green, tender moss.

Dance, God, for dawn is breaking.

Fly, wheat, be fruitful.

Never forget who you are,

fill your voice with discovery.

Do not delay in germinating.

Always return in bloom.

Alfredo Mires

in: Romance of the Mountain

Reaching a successful conclusion

This year, the Community Programme for the support of children with projectable abilities celebrated 31 years of presence in the rural communities of Cajamarca. Countless children and their families have been supported by our coordinators, and most of them have improved their living conditions thanks to the love, teachings and comprehensive therapies we have been able to provide.

Over the years, the Community Programme team has been trained and strengthened, we have learned and adapted our methodologies and strategies, and we have grown as people. But we have also grown a little older.

At the beginning of this year, we received the difficult news that the financial support currently provided by Kindernothilfe e.V. in Germany to sustain our programme will soon come to an end.

As a team, we are taking this news with dignity, calm and confidence; we know the mark we have left and the good we have been able to do for many children and their families.

At our meeting in May, we looked for ways and strategies to round off and complement our work over all these years and to bring it to a successful conclusion in the future. As the head of the Community Programme, I am very proud of our extraordinary team and of the wisdom, maturity, courage and optimism of our rural coordinators in continuing on this path, in different ways, for the good of children with disabilities.

I thank you and embrace you from my heart.

Rita Mocker

Head of the Community Programme

Grateful

A few months ago, we received a donation from our friend Daniel Sáenz of several boxes of books from the library of the late historian and teacher Pablo Macera.

Many of these books and collections are already circulating in the communities of Cajamarca, in our libraries. We know that these materials will be put to good use, especially in the rural libraries of educational institutions, where these books were ‘flying off the shelves’ because as soon as our coordinators learned of their existence, they requested them and they were promptly sent.

In a conversation with Cecilia Macera, Don Pablo's daughter, she told us that these books not only belonged to her father, but many were also from her mother, Mrs. Yolanda Urquizo Martell.

We would like to express our gratitude to the entire Macera Urquizo family for this generous donation to our Rural Libraries of Cajamarca.

Books with cheeky words

At a school in Cajamarca, children often enjoy reading our storybook instalments. They are their favourites because they tell different and entertaining stories.

Some identify them by the colours of the covers: they look for the purple book, the green one, the light blue one... Others know the titles very well: ‘I want the Pishgo Indian', or 'the seven pieces of advice,’ they say. Some remember the numbers better: I still have to read number 7, I've already read number 15. Others, from time to time, search for the title of a story: the book where the fool carries the door, the fox uncle and the rabbit. But children's innocence is greater than all academic or pedagogical formalities, their sincerity is exquisite, and one day, one who had forgotten all the other clues managed to say: ‘I want that book where there are cheeky words’.

In the past, perhaps, his teacher would have been scandalised, or perhaps she would not even have had those books in her library; but that is why we unlearn and learn again, valuing the expressions of our communities. So it was not difficult to find the story, although it was not easy either, because in these books there are several that have ‘naughtiness’, the kind that makes children's faces redden, but which they also love.

Read your friendship

In June 2023, during a trip to Medellin, Colombia, I met Leidy Velez. Those of us who love her call her Lez.

Lez is a librarian, reading mediator, archivist...and friend. I think the latter characterizes her best. I met Lez at a bebeteca, a library for babies, a space where she moves like a fish in water. Reading to children -young and old- is her passion. 

This April, Lez came to Peru and did not hesitate for a moment to visit us in Cajamarca to visit Bibliotecas Rurales and offer her support in several reading mediation activities in different spaces of the Network.

She gave a workshop on reading, writing and orality for teachers at the central base of the Libraries Network and another for teachers at the UGEL of Cajabamba. The teachers were amazed. 

We also visited the Malcas Garden, in the Condebamba valley, where the Network has a Rural Library in an Educational Institution. There we carried out four small units of reading promotion in the beautiful library of this garden and we returned with a renewed spirit because of the affection given to us by the children, their parents and teachers.

The few days I was able to share with Lez were full of deep conversations, learning and amazement. But it was also a time of much companionship, kindness and laughter.

Thank you, Lez, for your presence among us.

Come back soon.

Rita Mocker

The goblin of the labyrinth

Today, April 1, I read to my students, in a fourth grade classroom, two texts by Alfredo Mires that are part of the work El duende del laberinto y otros cuentos medulares: El vino and El amor III (The  goblin  of the labyrinth and other medular stories: Wine and Love III).

I then asked them for their interpretations and there was silence. I read again in order to encourage them and one of them said: "Love allows us to esteem the other, to value them, their existence is necessary. The vaccine mentioned in the text is to live without love, a barrier that removes sensitivity". Another student said: “Love leads us to suffering, you cannot love without suffering”, and his classmate expressed that “Love acts as a barrier to hate, it allows us to relate, unite and love each other”.

I insisted that they interpret the text “Wine” and, almost at the end of the class hour, a smiling young girl said: “Wine refers to the capacity of transformation, like the grape that goes through a process and transforms into something good, so we can transform ourselves”.

I felt, once again, happy for the enriching experiences that reading generates.

Thank you, Alfredo.

Elizabeth Olano

Teacher and head of a BRIE

Comic strips

From narration to comic strip

As part of an academic activity, a few weeks ago, a group of children from a local educational institution, read some of our stories to transform them into comic strips. The choice of the stories was totally free, as is the distribution of the content, because it is better to give them the freedom to choose the details and allow them to show their creativity.

It was very nice to see what criteria they used to choose their stories: the one that is scary, the one that is funny, the one that talks about the Virgin Mary of the town. In short, there is a lot of variety in our story booklets, for all tastes and readers' desires.

The result was a colourful panel, with drawings appropriate to their age and an enriching demonstration of their ability to summarize and present each story so that it can be understood in a few words.

Respectful of the precious work of these children, we have asked permission to present the “sample buttons”.