English library for Kharadi school
Indian Express: The children of Rajaram Bhikku Pathare Patil School in Kharadi are a happy lot. Now, they have their first exclusive English books library, thanks to Poorvi Kunzru and the financial aid provided by the Corporate Social Responsibility cell of Zensar Technologies.
Aptly entitled ‘Kitaab Korner’, the library is the brainchild of 20-year-old Poorvi Kunzru, who says, “The idea of starting this library hit me when I was working with an NGO two years back. I was working in a village where a community centre had recently opened, when one of the children there told me about the lack of reading facilities in the village. The idea spurred me on to working towards building libraries for children in underprivileged areas and I have been working towards the same, since then.”
Ganesh Natarajan, global CEO, Zensar Technologies, and chairman, NASSCOM said, “Instead of blaming people for everything that we don’t have, if we start contributing in small ways like this, it can go a long way in ensuring that problems of illiteracy are totally wiped out from the nation.”
The library features a host of fiction, non-fiction and reference books. In addition to having a full-fledged cataloguing and check out system, they also have an online record of the books.
Kunzru adds, “Five of the school students have been trained to become librarians and will monitor the library. In addition to this the library will also have books for reference that the children can use for their school projects.”
The library was set up in two weeks time, and the books here will also have barcode, call number, and cross-referenced indexing.
School principal Ramchandra Roopnawar, says, “The library will be accessed by the students of class five, six and seven. We did not have an English books library. ”
Poorvi, an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, had previously started 10 such libraries across the state.
“We are in the process of registering ‘Kitaab Korner’ as an NGO. In the immediate future we will be starting a similar library in Hyderabad, and hopefully by the end of 2010 we will have 60 such libraries running successfully across the nation.”
Apeksha Parkhe, a class 6 student, and one of the six librarians says, “In fact, these books have told us stories of places unheard and unseen.”
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