Hola!

My name is Daniza Curich.

I'm the communications specialist for Worldreader in Peru.

In October this year I travelled to Ccatcamara, a small and colorful community in the Cusco region, to meet some of the students using BookSmart.

Cusco is a breathtaking city in the Peruvian Andes at 3,400 metres above sea level. It's famous because it was once the capital of the Inca Empire. Today, it's a Unesco World Heritage Site.

That makes this area extremely rich in culture, traditions, and history.

The women weave their own clothes, using colorful textiles and intricate patterns.

Many of the men work in farming or agriculture. And all around you can see farm animals roaming freely.

But despite the sheer beauty of the people and the nature surrounding me, I was sad to see the reality of Peru’s inequality. Living in these remote places means that many of the children miss out on a quality education.

At 3,400 metres above sea level and far away from the rest of society, it's hard to deliver books to these areas, so you see a severe shortage of books and learning materials. With schools still partially closed due to Covid-19, it's been even harder for children to learn.

That's why I was so happy to see the children with their tablets – reading in their classrooms and at home with their parents.

This year we’ve been working with World Vision and Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE) to help these children learn. Before we started working here we found that, across Peru and the community, people read about 0.9 books a year on average. Now, in these communities this number has gone up to six or seven books in just four months. That's about 18 times more books in a year!

And, it’s not just about improvements in literacy and education either. Parents have been bonding with their children a lot more thanks to the reading. In some of the homes in these areas there are cases of domestic violence, and so part of the work that World Vision does is to educate parents on raising children with more softness and love. And, reading has really made this possible by giving them a chance to connect and spend time with each other in a way that’s supportive and caring.

I particularly loved getting to see children like Lisbeth proudly read from the library. It was super to see that Lisbeth, like many of the other children I met, had set up a dedicated reading corner in her home!

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Thank you for starting a reading culture here and putting a smile on these faces.

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Created By

Selena Garrahan

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Credits:

Worldreader