José Alberto Gutiérrez has dedicated his life to the mission of saving old and discarded books, and giving them to poor school children who might not afford them Gutiérrez began his collection with Leo Tolstoy's ‘Anna Karenina’. 20 years later, he has 25,000 books that take up the the entire ground floor of his house, stacked up into great walls and mountains of pages.
The library goes by the name of ‘La Fuerza de las Palabras’ which means ‘The Strength of Words’ in Spanish but more than instilling a love of books, the program is also about giving kids a leg up in education.
He has donated books to 237 schools and educational institutes all over Colombia and is supported by his family in this project. ‘The whole value of what we do lies in helping kids start reading,’ Gutierrez says.