The Man Who Transformed Trash Into A Free Library
A garbage man is making a difference in the lives of the children in his community in Colombia, and it all began when he spotted Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in with the rubbish. Rather than see the book discarded, he saw an opportunity to give back, and began collecting neglected books and storing them in his home. Alberto Gutierrez has rescued over 20,000 books in the last 20 years, that take up residence in his free in-home library, aptly named, "The Strength of Words". Gutierrez has even begun shipping books to other regions in Columbia that experience a shortage of literature. Local children who have limited access to books explore the library each weekend, and rarely leave empty-handed. "I think we are simply a bridge between people who have books and those who don't have anything," Gutierrez says.
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