Welcome to Sarah’s Rural Library Fund
Free schooling is available but children often have to leave school to help their families with farming.
Sarah's Rural Library Fund supports the work of the Rural Libraries Project in Cajamarca, Northern Peru. The Libraries promote literacy and equality in the indigenous communities of the high Andes. This organisation is run entirely by volunteers who walk through the mountains carrying books on their backs and exchanging the books between libraries that are held in people's homes.
There are currently 19,000 active readers who can be found in communities and education establishments.There are 250 community libraries based in homes and run by the families. and these are supported by 40 volunteer co-ordinators who have responsibility for a number of libraries and share the books between them. There are 50 rural libraries in schools run by volunteer teacher/librarians who use the stories in their books to teach literacy activities. Over the past 5 years 175 teachers have been trained at the Institute of Education in Jaen in the use of the Rural Libraries publications. - all volunteers who work with isolated communities living in adobe brick houses with little plumbing, heating or running water.
The Libraries have been responsible for publishing more than 200 different books on a variety of practical subjects including farming, weaving and hat making, all to keep the local indigenous skills alive. They have transcribed the traditional tales from the elders into stories that are then retold by the children and adults who are learning to read, keeping a record of the tales from the mountains.
For more information on the Rural Libraries of Cajamarca, you can visit their blog.
If you would like to get in touch with Sarah’s Rural Library Fund or make a donation, please get in touch on info@sarahsrurallibraries.com.
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