22 years ago primary school teacher, Luis Soriano, decided to share his modest collection of 70 books with children in his rural town of La Gloria and the surrounding areas of the Magdalena Province. His donkey-powered mobile library service, over the years had enriched and empowered the impoverished communities with the access to a wide variety of literature.
Luis Soriano was born in Valledupar, Cesar in 1970, and has lived almost all his life in Gloria, Magdalena, the district where he carries out his Biblioburro service. Growing up in a remote part of Colombia, he obtained a degree in Spanish literature from the University of Magdalena via a professor who visited his town a couple of times per month. He then became an elementary school teacher.
Many of the children from the impoverished communities in the area have witnessed intense conflict. The children previously had no access to books at home, or a library. Illiteracy rates were – and still are – alarmingly high against the national average.
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics places the national average of 15-24 year olds with a literacy rate of 98.67% (15 and older 94.65%) as of 2016. However the area of La Gloria is significantly lower than average. That nation has approximately 110,000 illiterate 15-24 year olds and nearly 2 million illiterate people over the age of 15.
In 1997, Luis recognised that he could do something to tackle the illiteracy rates and lack of access to education in this area. He embarked upon a plan to create a mobile library. With his two donkeys, named Alpha and Beta – together know as AlphaBeto – he began to regularly travel around the area carrying around 120 books per trip. A round-trip could be as much as 11 kilometers and more than eight hours to complete. Alpha carries the books and Beta carries Luis.
The zones were dangerous at that time due to the armed conflict because of the paramilitarism, many people, including his family, were concerned about his welfare.
His library grew extensively when he wrote a letter to a Colombian journalist and writer called Juan Gossain after hearing about his novel La Balada de María Abdala on a radio program. Juan broadcasted the details of the exchange over the radio, which created a huge amount of other authors to do the same. The Biblioburro received an avalanche of donations from the audience. His library grew to nearly 4800 books, with children’s adventure stories being the most popular genre.
The ambitions of project for Luis are high. “With Biblioburro we are fighting what is called the farmers ignorance. In a book we can find cities, cultures, rights, duties. A child that we educate today with the Bibioburro is a child of whom we are teaching rights, duties and commitments. And a child that knows his rights, his duties and commitments is a child informed to say no to war. We are building Colombians of the future, intellectual Colombians.”
Since 2010 the project has officially become a recognised foundation to addresses the problem of illiteracy in the Colombian Caribbean. The library now consists of more than 8000 books that serve the entire community including indigenous communities and even more children in the Magdalena department. Replicas have emerged in countries including Italy, Brazil, Venezuela, India and Bolivia.
The inspirational story of the donkey library and Luis Soriano has been turned into the Biblioburro children’s book and a documentary has been made filmed about the library.
How to get involved
You can support the foundation by volunteering and making a donation through the Biblioburro Go Fund Me campaign. The foundation is currently raising funds for an educational and cultural experience to benefit more than 8000 children in the department of Magdalena, Colombia.
Further Information
Biblioburro Foundation is a non-profit organisation that was initiated by Luis Soriano. In 1997 Luis Soriano, a primary school teacher began to travel through the interior communities of Caribbean Colombia with his donkey powered mobile library consisting of 70 books. In the area of Magdalena Gloria there were neither schools nor teachers at this time. In 2010 the project officially became a recognised foundation to addresses the problem of illiteracy, stimulate reading and education in rural sectors and communities at the risk of improving education levels in the Colombian Caribbean. The library now consists of more than 8000 books that serve the entire community.
www.fundbiblioburro.org
I: @biblioburrocolombia F: /biblioburrocolombia T: @fun_biblioburro GO FUND ME
*Update 2023: Please note that the contact links above are not currently working. I have contacted the foundation for more information about how books and financial donations can be made. I will update this information as soon as possible.
Main feature image ©Biblioburro Foundation
Hi. I’m interested in starting a Biblio Carro in my town. I was spired by Biblioburro. Do you have a newsletter to which I could subscribe?
thank you for the article