Rescuing books from the trash in Bogotá

Cross-posted from the Idealist.org blog.  Quite relevant, considering the dearth of textbooks at my school.  I think the fact that a lot of kids at public schools don't have access to a single textbook, while rich Colombians are throwing away books (a sacrilegious act in and of itself in my bibliophilic mindset), says a lot about the staggering inequality in Colombian society. 

How one man’s idea to rescue books from the trash contributed to everyday life in Bogotá.     By Putnam Barber, July 7, 2011

Recently my colleague Elena interviewed José Alberto about his success in recycling books for schoolkids in Bogotá, Colombia. (You can read her original post in Spanish at Idealistas.org.)

In his work as a trash hauler, José Alberto observed usable books discarded by households throughout the city.

He knew that children in the low-income neighborhood near his home had difficulty getting the books they needed for their school work, there was no bookstore nearby, and the nearest library was a long way away.

So fifteen years ago, he decided to rescue them and make them available to the kids in his neighborhood. Starting in the ground floor of his own home, he has expanded the network of bibliotecas into eight neighborhoods of the city. As word of his project has spread, more and more Bogoteños donate used books directly to him, avoiding the detour into a waste bin.

Elena says that José’s entire family has been involved in this never-ending project for 15 years now: “They don’t have a car or even a little motorbike, and frequently they cross the city after somebody’s call to pick up boxes of books that then they carry in buses all across the city.” By opening his own home as a place to find books, José Alberto started something that has changed the lives of thousands of children (and their parents) in Bogotá.