A warm welcome to all our readers and well-wishers!

While this quarter has not been as hectic as the previous one, a lot sure has happened. TheBetterIndia recently wrote about Happy Children’s Library, and it is heartening to see our work being recognised!

Read this coverage: How a Couple Ignited a Literary Revolution In a Remote Uttarakhand Village!

We have also seen an increase in the use of the Library’s resources in terms of goodwill and outreach activities in other areas. This has helped increase the exposure of the community – a very good development, indeed!

Here’s whats been keeping us busy this quarter :

6th July: Library Outreach

Garjoli Inter College now has a whole host of new books in their library, thanks to the Angelique Foundation! This July, we added 273 books and one steel rack that we received from the Foundation as part of their library outreach.

Jaya also conducted a story telling session of a book “Manch ka darr” and had a good discussion with the school children about stage fright, which would prove to be very helpful the next month when the children had their own play.

The feedback from the children since then has also been very positive and they have been devouring the new books in their library.

19 July : Tree Plantation & Community Awareness

As part of the effort to sensitize the children about the environment, we conducted our third “Vriksharopan” programme.

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It was very heartening when the villagers came forward to associate with this plantation drive. With the assistance of CHIRAG and the self help group in the village, we planted 100 saplings across three different locations in Seem and Dhon. Alongside the children, about 30 men and women participated in this effort.

The aanganwadi teacher also used this opportunity to brief the women about the various financial assistance schemes available from the Uttarakhand Government for the girl child.  This is a new development and we hope to arrange more such awareness programmes for the community in the future.

3rd to 11th August : Theatre workshop

An extremely productive workshop on theatre was conducted by Vandana Pandey. Vandana worked with kids aged 10 and above and they explored various aspects of sense, sound and touch. The children also created their own music using objects available in their surroundings. They were then divided into 3 groups and then wrote their own short story that was then converted into a play.

This effort finally culminated in the enactment of three short plays and a musical performance on the 11^th. A very warm gathering of parents and elders saw the presentations and were elated to see the progress that had been made by the kids.

This has been an extremely useful interaction for the children and we hope to have many more such workshops in the future.

15 August : Health Camp

On Independence Day, in association with M N Srivastava Hospital, Ranikhet and Chandra Shankar Trust, Almora, a free eye & health checkup and medicine distribution camp was arranged.  More than 200 checkups were conducted in ophthalmology, gynecology and general health, and medicines and tonics were distributed among the villagers.

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This initiative by Dr O P L Srivastava & Dr Renu Srivastava made a comprehensive health checkup in a remote area possible.

22 August – 3 Sept: Embroidery classes and Carrom Tournament

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As they say, “there’s never a free lunch” – it came to pass for one of Jaya’s sisters, Rajni, who was visiting. She was roped in to teach 13 girls and 1 boy the basics of embroidery over this week. The enthusiastic learners picked up the craft and participated in a competition featuring their creations during the workshop.

On the insistence of the boys, a Carom tourney was arranged during this period. They were divided into 6 teams and after a league, finals were held on 3rd September. The ‘Pahari Gang’ bagged the prize .

Col. and Mrs R C Bhandari from Haldwani, who had sponsored the prizes for the embroidery workshop and the rolling trophy for the Carom Tournament, judged the winners and distributed the prizes.

5th September : Ek din khushi ka

Our friends from UDHYAM and Meteors Trust reached out to us to conduct a survey among village women about what would make them happy. Accordingly, on 5th September, beyond all expectations, 58 women gathered in the library to take part in the discussion.

When asked, all the ladies were willing to take a complete day off from their chores for something more interesting, but were unanimous in expressing that this ‘din khushi ka’ had to necessarily be somewhere away from the village!   

7 & 8th Sep : International Literacy  Day with book reading and activities

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Like previous years, our library was part of Pratham’s  “One day one story” campaign this year as well. Two books were published this year, and so it was double the fun!  On the 7^th of September there was story reading and discussion, after which the kids came up with fun games related to the stories. For the story “Gappu nach nahi sakti” we had our own ” Gappu nacha sakti hai”!

Much inspired by “Rajkumari Nila”, a feisty princess who takes pride in her strength,  our older kids also tried weight lifting!

To celebrate International Literacy Day on 8th September, children made groups, selected books and went around the village reading out stories to their grandparents and parents. The more enthusiastic ones ensured the audience was attentive by asking them questions! This initiative was totally managed by the kids and they were so happy with the response that they want to do this again and again! 

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We were excited to find a mention on instagram as well!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2J-rIoJrOH/

15th Sept – UDHYAM outreach

Continuing their Rural Entrepreneurship Programme for this year, UDHYAM held a meeting with the community to explain the scheme and invited proposals from villagers from Seem and its surrounding villages. About 25 community members from 4 villages attended the session and participated in the discussions. 

We hope some good proposals are incubated among our villagers for successful implementation.  

Other collaborations…

6 girls from the village have joined various training programmes at Himjyoti Vocational Institute Dehradun. The happiness and zeal with which they are pursuing their courses have put our and their parents’ fears and apprehensions to rest.