Luis Soriano traveling with his Biblioburro. (photo: Scott Dalton for The New York Times)

I like stories like this – of people who do what they can to improve this world for others.

This story is about Luis Soriano, a teacher from La Glora, Columbia.  Almost every weekend for the past 10 years, he loads books onto his 2 donkeys, Alfa and Beto, and sets off for the small villages in his area.

Soriano created Biblioburro (biblio is the root for book, and burro means donkey) because he saw how reading transformed his young students, who were born into an environment burdened with intense conflict from Columbia’s long, internal war.  Witnessing the power reading had on his pupils, Soriano decided to help people without easy access to books by bringing the books to them himself – a man with a traveling library saddled on top a pair of donkeys.

His weekly excursions aren’t easy.  Once, he was robbed by bandits who tied him to a tree.  And sometimes, Alfa and Beto don’t cooperate as well as he’d like.  But he still goes because the children wait for him in groups on the weekends.  And because young people like Ingrid Ospina, 18, after reading a poem, will say:

“That is so beautiful, Maestro.  When are you coming back?”   (maestro means teacher)

The article.

Thanks to my cousin, who loves books almost as much as she loves me.