José María Campaña Perez

By creating a system for collecting and restoring used books and distributing them to needy schools, José Campaña is promoting both literacy and civic engagement among children in Uruguay.

José has developed a unique system for bringing books to low-income children, based on his belief that promoting "reading habits in kids is a high investment in democracy." Through the Solidarity Book Bank for Children, José collects new and old books, largely from children, repairs them at his "Book-Rescuers" workshops, and then distributes them to places where children gather, like schools, shelters, and daycare centers. Besides encouraging reading and providing books to children who would not otherwise have them, this system promotes civic engagement among middle-class, private school children–the major book donors to the program. The Solidarity Book Bank for Children is a simple and low-cost system, yet it is unique in that its books rotate between sites every two months rather than staying in one library or with one child, a practice that works to maximize the number of children who can read them. Rotation also guarantees libraries a variety of reading material throughout the year.

In Uruguayan society, cultural and societal norms hold that social advancement comes from education as well as from cultural and artistic activities; reading, writing, theater, and music are supposed to be a part of daily life. However, these ideals have gone unfulfilled because of the failure of the socioeconomic model to reward people for ability and hard work.
The education system in Uruguay teaches 400,000 primary school and 200,000 secondary school pupils. A recent Ministry of Education and Culture study shows that over 60 percent of these students do not read outside the classroom. The study also reveals problems with students' language skills–three quarters of them write with significant spelling mistakes. The government and education authorities are aware of the problem and willing to try to solve it, but they have been unable to do so because of lack of money for books or reading programs. Montevideo, for example, has around 80 municipal or community libraries for adults; fewer than 10 of these have adequate children's areas.
The need to supplement and support education is becoming more urgent. Forty to 50 percent of children under the age of 13 live in poverty. It is critical that these children be able to feed themselves, both with food and with the intellectual sustenance that good books provide. Says José, "Children living in underprivileged conditions should be able to read, for a book channels their fantasy, opens their imagination beyond the limitations of their own daily lives_a book can save a life."

Convinced that he has an opportunity to create real change in society by helping kids become responsible citizens, José is fostering both literacy and a sense of civic engagement in Uruguayan children. In 1990 he started designing the "Book-Rescuers" project, a program that was meant to increase used-book donations within private schools, then restore those books and distribute them among needy schools. The idea was to improve the quality of school libraries with children's participation. After five years of negotiations with the local authorities in Montevideo, he finally reached an agreement with the Franciscan Center that provided him with the physical space to store and repair books. Another agreement–this one with the Municipality of Montevideo–gave him a bookbinder, a monthly stipend of $2,000 and a vehicle so he could spread his message and his books. In exchange for these tools, José agreed to keep the books in municipal and community libraries in good condition. So in 1995 José founded Book Rescuers, a successful fund that gathered 200,000 donated books–60 percent of which were provided by private school children–restored them, and then offered them to 150 low-income schools and homes.
But José soon realized that simply donating books to schools was not the most effective way to strengthen children's reading habits. On the one hand, the practice generated a passive attitude in kids who did not really value their books. On the other hand, the practice did not offer a good variety of reading material to a school unless José received constant donations. So in May 2001, he created the Solidarity Bank of Books for Children based on the principle that "a book is recyclable"–it can circulate among recipients and thus have an impact on a large number of people. The fundamental difference between the Solidarity Bank and the former fund is that the bank implements a rotating 40-books-a-box system, in which each box is provided for a two-month period exclusively to needy schools, homes, secondary schools, and children's institutions. José has also introduced a system to commend the schools and families that take the best care of their books. This system generates community commitment to maintaining books. The bank has an additional benefit: the two-month period creates incentive for children to read the books before they are rotated out of reach.
Though the Solidarity Bank receives donations from the public sector and other institutions, José has been able to garner the bulk of his support from children themselves, thanks to strong media coverage that includes an annual appeal for book donations that raises awareness of the importance of reading for all of society. "[Children] are the engines of this project," says José. Recognizing the important role that children play, bank representatives spend entire days at private and middle-class schools. They go from class to class, telling stories to children and teaching them how to repair old books or make new ones in order to build commitment among the students. After the visits, the children themselves are responsible for overseeing their school's book donations.
José works with a team of five volunteers who are in charge of receiving requests from schools, collecting donations, classifying books, repairing them, and then distributing them upon demand. One of José's short-term aims is to include a social worker on his team–someone to visit the schools that receive books in order to help children write their own stories, share their insights, and engage in debate and discussion, making critical-thinking development another benefit of his bank. He currently does this himself on a limited basis, but he cannot devote as much time to it as a full-time volunteer could.
At present, with a working team of only four people, the Solidarity Bank is assisting 40 institutions, most of which are schools in Montevideo. José's goal is to increase that number to 60 in Montevideo by the end of this year, and then to 150 the year after that. The simplicity, low cost, and extreme success of his model will allow it to spread easily to other parts of Uruguay. José is convinced that local governments should provide a service like his without any additional cost, since book banks can be instituted by reallocating existing, unused municipal funds. He is already taking the necessary steps to launch a bank in San José, with the support of a private health company; in Canelones, through an agreement with the municipality; and in Maldonado, as a joint venture with a supermarket chain. In each case he is organizing local resources so that the projects can grow without his constant attention.
José's model is starting to gain attention outside of Uruguay, and he has begun weaving a growing network of programs into what he hopes will become a Latin American Book Network. The prevalence of Spanish as the vernacular throughout most of the region makes this expansion possible. José has already found a partner in Venezuela who is eager to get involved, and he hopes to launch banks in Paraguay and Bolivia soon. José would like to strengthen the Latin American Network by setting up a committee that includes renowned personalities who will give the project an international character.

Born in Durazno to a poor family, José remembers drawing pictures and writing about the battles he learned about in history class during primary school. It was not until he had to drop out of school to work that the importance of books became evident to him. "I learned by myself from books," he says. "They were my great companions. They set me free from being narrow-minded."
Committed to social change in Uruguay, José joined the Communist party at the beginning of the 1960s, and there he was able to indulge his other passion, drawing, in creating the party's propaganda. He was always questioning the party, however, because he sensed that the people were more concerned with the party itself than with real social change. During the military dictatorship that started in 1973, José spent two and a half years in jail. He then exiled himself to Belgium until democracy returned in 1985. He came back to Uruguay skeptical and disillusioned about politics but still eager for a change. He combined his twin love for words and art, became a communicator, and devoted himself to advertising (with a clear focus on social issues). He organized an exhibition of his drawings in San José and opened a communications studio where he offered training courses. José also led the building of a shelter for 50 homeless people that still functions in Montevideo, where he also played a significant role as a conflict mediator.
He has led numerous communication campaigns for children, helping enhance their imaginations by teaching them to create their own stories. One of his initiatives was the design and implementation of a "milk container" recycling campaign in schools. He had children recycle their milk bags at home and write stories related to them. He then gathered these stories and drawings into an educational book about environmental issues. For José, these campaigns were profoundly enlightening. He realized that children were the key to the social change he had been seeking. His projects also gave him a glimpse of the deplorable state of school libraries. From this realization, he used his experience in building for his daughter a library out of used books to begin creating a program to bring libraries of books to needy children across Uruguay.