Inspirational work furthering literacy
There is a tremendous amount of inspiration from all around us. Numerous people, in person or in small teams, are engaging to advance literacy within those sections of our communities where it’s most needed. Their stories of struggle & hope keep pushing our JSWF team forward in our dream to set up libraries in ethnic communities for children.
Veena & her husband Virendra Gupta did not look anywhere for help. They are teachers at heart. So when the pandemic struck children from the poorer sections of Delhi, they did not waste time but took to the streets themselves. They set up roadside classrooms & started teaching. It all started when “Veena Gupta’s maid, who lives on bank of the river, complained that with schools shut, children in her impoverished community were running amok and wasting time” according to the September 2020 report by WaPo.
Filmmaker Remi Bumstead & producer Alexandra Zeitlin drove through 10 countries from London to The Gambia in West Africa in their call to bring education closer to the special needs children of Kashmir & Africa. With donations from friends and families, they fixed up a bus, fondly named Janga Bus, loaded it with toys & teaching materials, and drove across borders to fulfil their mission.
Kundan Kanskar took matters of education into his own hands. Vivek Manjunath, Shahid Nizam, Sahil Kaushar, Jay Kumar Singh, Kundan Kanskar, Shubham Singh, Amritansh Kumar and Santosh Kumar established “Save Child Beggar” with the sole focus on child beggars, giving them an opportunity to read, write & eat.
They inspired thousands of volunteer teachers & restaurant owners to come forward with their helping hands. “After coming from Karnataka, I felt sad when I saw so many homeless kids in Delhi. I felt we should do something to these kids literate” he said in an interview with Times of India.
Like everywhere else, ethnic communities have struggled for ages to keep their land, their identity & follow the footsteps of their ancestors in peace. But peace is something that our so called modern, more advanced societies refused to give them. In the US, the native Americans continue to struggle for civil rights, for a simple acknowledgement of humanity from the ones who invaded & took their lands by force.
In India, while the government has in bits & pieces shown all the good intentions of protecting indigenous tribes, the situation at the grass roots are completely different. They are still subjected to inhuman labor, torture and decimation. Lately, more such news are cropping up, thanks to extending mobile networks & people’s use of social media.
While there’s no shortage of inspirations around us, there is also a million things to do. We are moving forward with our literacy programs in small steps, assisted by close friends and families. We would love for you to join us in our book drive & take a significant step towards facilitating education in rural communities.
