Books, kids and a call for help!

In my last post, I mentioned that I’ve been thinking of ways to help others. With my time, resources and ideas. With a portion of my finances.

And the whole thing, this embryo of an idea has blossomed into a little project. A project to make a tiny bit of difference to the lives of the children in a locality in Adampur, Punjab. For now, let me lay out Part A of this project.

I am starting a Reading Room for underprivileged children right in my garage. With books that I have bought and with books that I hope you will be able to send over. Used books. Well-loved books. New books. Books that your children have loved and read and thumbed through several times. Books that have been gathering dust on your shelf. Books that may land up in the junk some day. Books that you may want to buy and send over for these kids (I can send a list).

I’m looking for storybooks and picture books. In English and Hindi. Second-hand encyclopedias and comic books. Amar Chitra Kathas, Champak and Chandama magazines. Old issues of travel magazines (Outlook Traveller, Lonely Planet, to name a few). All of these will be very welcome in this little reading room.

The children who’ll come here will be anywhere between 5 years of age to 13 years of age. All of these are children who go to schools but do not have the spare cash to spend on storybooks – a world that’s still elusive and out-of-reach for them. Their mothers work as domestic helps and their fathers as gardeners, rickshaw drivers, laborers.

The Reading Room will be open for 5 days a week, an hour in the evenings on school days, and more hours over the weekends and school holidays. It’ll be a place where they can look at bright storybooks and thumb through stories. We’ll also have art and theatre workshops in the Reading Room during school holidays.

But for right now, we are looking for books to place on the shelves of the reading room.

Image credit: Bernie's Book Bank

If you’d like to help (and I hope you will!), this is what you can do:

Send us picture books and storybooks that your kids have outgrown

Send us second-hand encyclopedias and atlases

Send us comic books (like Amar Chitra Katha) and children’s magazines (Champak, Chandamama)

Buy a few new children’s books (I can provide a list if you like) and send it over

Gift a children’s magazine subscription

Send us your old issues if travel magazines

Help spread the word by texting/emailing/telling your friends about this Reading Room project.

*Reading material can be in English or Hindi.

Please email me at chandanabanerjee30@gmail.com if you want to help send books for this Reading Room.

If you want to reach me on Facebook, please head over here.

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