At Jaagriti, our focus has always been on developing basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills among the children. With this perspective, the initiative of Mobile Library has been started at Jaagriti to inculcate the habit of reading among the children, to enhance their learning and also keep them more informed about the world.
We have initially started with about 50 books, which contain very short stories in Hindi and English along with pictures describing the stories. Children first understand the pictures and then relate them to what is written in the book. The books have been procured from PRATHAM books and some primary level books, collected during the Joy of Giving week campaign, are also being used.
We visit the project every weekend to issue books to the children and also teach them how to understand and read the book.
The children can avail the service very easily, they don't need to have any Library Card and can borrow the books by just entering their name in the record book. Books borrowed from the library can be used for two weeks.
It has been 3 weeks since we started this initiative and the response of the children has been very good. As new academic session is about to begin next month, we look forward to conduct some drives to collect second hand primary class books for our children. We are also exploring options of using some software (such as CBFL program by TCS) to help us in this initiative and will also introduce a daily one hour reading period in our classes.
Like always, we look forward for your suggestions/comments to strengthen our initiatives and increase our outreach.
Thanks
Anchit and Kant
