Welcome!

We would like to welcome our brothers and sisters as new network coordinators and librarians: Marleny Violeta Olivera, Olga Asunción Estela, Clara Flores, Flavio Herrera, Fran Garay, Jesus Fernandez, Miguel Cupertino Quiroz and Serapio Sánchez, who were ratified by the community gathered in our General Assembly.

This means that we affirm and expand in the provinces of Celendín, San Marcos, San Pablo, San Ignacio and Huamachuco (Department of La Libertad).

Happily the humblest are those who best agree with what the philosopher Cicero said more than two thousand years ago: "The supreme law is the good of the people."

Thank you for your voluntary and determined presence!

Minga in the Assembly

In many ways, a General Assembly of the Network is a festival, for the joy that is shared and the enthusiasm that is lavished, but - perhaps even more so - for its sense of celebration and homage.

It is a time to evaluate and plan, to train together, to rescue our traditions and to celebrate our all'pata paguikun (the offering to the earth, to the apus and the deceased).

But this time we also celebrated the coming together for 'minga' (working voluntarily in community): from five in the morning we were already cleaning the house, patching the walls, arranging the gardens, fixing the ceilings and looking after our spaces.

Large and small, women and men, alone and in groups, coming from all corners of the region, the rural librarians remind us of the value of the community. And the certainty that it is possible to grow together.

Nathalia with the Network

Just in time to prepare the books for the exchange, the Reader's Records, the calendars, posters and other materials for each library, our friend and volunteer Nathalia Quintero arrived from Colombia, to be integrated again for another time in the Central Team in Cajamarca.

Nathalia - besides being a volunteer and responsible for the Technical Secretariat of Rural Libraries - is doing her PhD on the Network. She has been accompanying us since 2017 at various times and is slowly organizing our Exchange Center.

Thank you, Nathalia, for your company, your support and your great friendship. Welcome, always!

Assembly!

"My heart is sweating pumas"

Manuel Scorza

Messages to keep walking

Messages of encouragement and strength came to us at this time. And how they help!

They come from near and far, from the countryside and from the city but, above all, they come from within. And here we share some:

Javier says: "Dear brother, with the greatest appreciation, receive the greeting and may the blessing of the father and the spirits of our deceased and our sacred mountains spill their blessing to the whole family."

Says Rosa: “For the Rural Libraries it is like all the time is to be born and a new year, because they make reflection and union taking consciousness of the reality, in forging of a free and sovereign homeland in the chaotic world of now.”

Javier and Orlanda say: “Dear friends, thanks to you for showing us, to so many, coherence, courage, integrity, kindness of heart. A huge hug and our best wishes for this year that begins.”

Says Sara: "I wish you a nice time ... You are a Christmas because you bring good news for young people, peasants and children. Hugs for the whole family.”

Mario says: “Thank you very much, brothers. Many blessings to all the team of the Network. How I love the libraries!!”

Materials for the new year

The Community Program for the accompaniment of children with projected capacities is conceived as a community-based rehabilitation program - although we do not fully agree with the term rehabilitation, because that would be to think that the children, without our accompaniment, do not have skills, which is completely false.

The truth is that our accompaniment of the children is direct: in the communities, in the houses and with the presence of the family. We start from the particular needs of each child and the expectations of the family to build together a strategy that helps the child to improve their own skills -according to their possibilities, in harmony and with the rhythm of the family and nature.

That requires a lot of tact from our coordinators since, on the other hand, from the Central Office we also require a cautious reporting of the accompaniment of each child with a specific planning and a constant evaluation of the advances. For that, generally, coordinators need some therapy materials for each child.

That sounds little, but in sum, the amount of materials requested by the coordinators for the nearly 80 children that we accompany, is great. That is why, each year our managing partner Lola Paredes travels to Lima where we can acquire these materials at a lower cost.

When the materials arrive in Cajamarca, the Main Room of the Network's premises is filled. From there we have to order, distribute, pack and send everything to different destinations. It is a job that normally takes us a week.

This year, with the generous support of our volunteers from Colombia, we did it in a single day. Thank you with all my heart to you Gaviota, Hasbleidy, Mayra, Paula and Sara!

Volunteering and dedication

Gaviota Castro, Hasbleidy Rivera, Mayra Sánchez, Paula Castellanos and Sara Ríos, a team of young Colombian librarians, arrived in the middle of this month to become volunteers in our community.

They are an example of inspiration and expectations to learn and deepen; In their volunteer application they honor us with their words "We know that the experience we will have as volunteers in Cajamarca will nourish and enrich our work".

Thus they have integrated into the family, with joy, dedication and simplicity. But, above all, with the commitment of volunteering: they have been demonstrating their professionalism, supporting various activities in the office and visiting our libraries in some communities.

Welcome, team: your presence is encouraging and teaches us a lot. We know that we are not alone, that you are also doing your thing in sister communities.

This time together is for us an opportunity to share, to learn and unlearn.