Free Libraries for Tribal Students
Jay Shakuntala Welfare Foundation, based out of Balarampur in Chhattisgarh, has been actively working to build small libraries in ethnic communities. Over the past several months we have been planning & building out a small model & hub library in Balarampur for the local tribal children & students.
Late November 2021 we were both blessed & granted permission to set up a library for the Kabir Chaura Math & Ashram in Varanasi. This spiritual organization provides free education to the needy & we hope our library would encourage kids & youth of the school to take to reading.
Balarampur is the home to numerous small ethnic communities, mostly hunter gatherers in nature, and have always struggled to adopt the mainstream educational systems. While government funds have always been available to schools & to provide meals to the students, these have not helped the communities with education in the last 100 years!
Our Approach to Facilitating Learning
We believe learning, especially for kids, is a matter of encouraging curiosity, playfulness and experimentation. With that in mind, our small libraries are planned to be colorful with a playful atmosphere with toys and learning gadgets & educational. Electronic gadgets like tablets & chrome books makes learning interesting & systematic.
Like most of the rural areas in developing countries, remote tribal communities have significant challenges that have to be overcome before we can anticipate a healthy presence of tribal children in the libraries and consequent good use of the facilities.
While most of it is a matter of time, several infrastructural deficiencies add significantly to the roadblocks. Availability of electricity and clean drinking water for example are two major hurdles we are working through right now. We want the children to learn the importance of cleanliness and be able to have clean drinking water while in the libraries.
There is always hope!
While the tribal kids are our biggest encouragement, there are numerous non-profit organizations & individuals like us who are equally committed to making a small difference in various communities. Unfortunately, the very phrase Non Government Organization is marred with news of fraud & misappropriation of funds, there seem to be a new wave of social workers who are etching a true story of what social work really is! They are our inspirations as well, keeping our work move forward one step at a time!
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