OUR STORY   

The Founders  

Jaya & Atul, a retired couple started this initiative from a dedicated space on the premises of their residence in village Seem, about 40 kms from Nainital in the Uttarakhand hills.  Jaya, a homemaker, has volunteered with the social sector since 1995, having worked with children in institutions dealing with cancer care, special needs and alternative education. Happy Childrens’ Library is her attempt at providing a space for alternate development of children in her village community and surrounding areas. Atul, an engineer, voluntarily quit the corporate sector in 2010 to work in the social sector in the area of livelihoods and income generation. Both belong to Uttarakhand and have the advantage of language and cultural roots in the area to enhance their community interaction.

They furnished a spare room with four bookshelves, a soft board and seventeen passed on books and on June 1, 2016, they opened a “still in progress” library to the children of their village Seem & Dhon. 35 curious kids turned up and swelled to 50 in the next two days. With an initial budget of  Rs 5000/=, story books and board games were procured on a war footing. Friends and acquaintances chipped in with gifts from a wish list and soon the shelves were full of bright, colourful books, soft toys and indoor games. The books are curated by Jaya to ensure that the right type of material is available for the children.

The children are growing up to be confident youngsters and have become an inseparable part of the founders’ life in Seem. The tremendous and whole hearted support of the village community, who have embraced them as one of their own and showered them with affection have in no small measure contributed to the continuation of their initiative.

KAILASHPUSHP EDUCATIONAL TRUST

Kailashpushp Educational Trust is a registered charitable trust headquartered in village Seem. Promoted by Jaya & Atul, the main objectives of the trust are to cater to formal & non formal education, specialized & vocational training and to provide financial and career assistance to deserving youth of the area. It proposes to take all initiatives based primarily on the needs of the community and the expertise and resources available to it.

The Trust was officially registered in Nainital on 24 Oct 2017.  A firm of Chartered Accountants has been retained and all accounts are regularly audited and certified. The Trust has complied with all statutory requirements and has obtained exemption under Sec 80 G of the IT Act 1961 for all donations w.e.f April 2020. It is also eligible to receive CSR funding.

Two more trustees, Rohini and Nidhi, who live in the area and are associated with the library, have been inducted from April 2021. They have been assigned specific areas of the trust’s work in keeping with their area of expertise.

HAPPY CHILDREN’S LIBRARY

Happy Children’s Library was established with the idea of providing the village kids a space to call their own where they could come after school to read and play. The children were given the task of naming the library and “Happy Children’s Library” was a popular choice by vote! 

The growth of the library has been organic and need based add-ons have blended very smoothly into the purpose and essence of the library.  What started out as a small library now boasts of over 2000 books, mainly in Hindi and has turned out to become a “library-cum-activity centre” since along with storytelling & reading, art & craft, puzzles and board games were gradually added. This was a dire need since the children had no other place in or around the village to explore their creativity and engage in some interesting, and fruitful activities.

Since, there was a demand for formal tuitions from the community, tuition in Math and English was started in Aug 2016 with the help of locally available resource persons. After the pandemic regular tuition classes in Math, Science and English are held three days a week, with the remaining days reserved for library, games and other activities. On an average more than 60 children from Class 3 – 12 attend the daily tuitions and 80+ come for the library and activity sessions on the other days. The attendance crosses 100 during the summer holidays.

A computer lab has also been operational since Sept 2017 and basic computer education is made available for children and adults. In addition to workshops in science, theatre and dance, photography, art, adventure and self defence, excursions & educational tours are organized on a regular basis. These help in the overall development of the children.

With the help of Angilique Foundation, New Delhi, outreach libraries have been set up in 5 schools over the past few years. In addition, para teachers are being made available to primary schools in the vicinity, so that the children attending the library are provided for.

The library is now a “my space” to not just the children of Seem but also to kids from  a total of 10 surrounding villages of Dhon, Byasi, Nauna, Darmadi, Siltona, Bamatana, Dhauna and Jogyari.

VTC

In July 2020, the trust arranged for vocational training in stitching and a group of 18 women and girls undertook a three month basic course. An SHG was also formed to set up an income generating venture producing high end hand crafted products for visitors and other customers as well as regular clothes for the community. After the initial handholding by way of infrastructure, sewing machines and training,  the women are now handling their enterprise independently. 

TEAM  HCL

Jaya has been working with children on a voluntary basis since 1995. She has worked with cancer patients, children with special needs and also in the field of education while administering a primary school.  She is also a trained and experienced counselor. Happy Children’s Library is her brainchild.  

Atul, a Civil Engineer with over 30 years of professional experience, has been associated with the development sector since 2011. He has worked on rural livelihoods & natural resource management. He is very fond of gardening and the outdoors and looks after the administrative aspects of the library and trust. 

Rohini, a graduate from NIFT has been in the apparel industry for twenty years, where she worked in merchandising, product development and sourcing. Long term frugal travel made her change her course of life and she bade farewell to the corporate world. She is currently working and learning with CHIRAG on a spring recharge project. She also dabbles with the ideas of permaculture, minimalism, knitting and awareness about menstrual-health. 

Nidhi, an alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, has been in the social sector for the past eight years and specializes in rural education. She loves dancing and is currently pursuing Bharatnatyam. She also facilitates storytelling sessions for young learners and enjoys traveling, trekking, folk music and can also be found experimenting in the kitchen.

Kripal sir, a resident of Seem, Kripal has been teaching children of this area at a private school in since 2003.  He has been an integral part of trhe tuitions initiative of the library since August 2016 and is an avid youtuber. He also maintains the vernacular facebook page of the library.

Bhawana, a young graduate from Byasi village learnt computers at the library and has thereafter been working with us since 2021. She takes care of the library outreach initiative at Govt.Primary School, Darmadi and assists in the library for computer literacy classes.

Vijay, is a much sought after teacher and conducts a tuition academy in Garampani for senior school children. He has been associated with the library since 2019 and teaches Math and Science to senior classes. His association with the library has been instrumental in the children doing excellently in their respective schools.