WHEN STUDENTS GIFT EDUCATION
SRCC students set up libraries in Delhi for underprivileged kids, to spread the reading habit and, above all, joy
Education is the best gift you can give yourself or anyone else, said author Mahtab Narsimhan. And it’s one gift students of Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) are giving those not privileged enough to afford a proper education.
The Connecting Dreams Foundation, SRCC chapter, has undertaken the Project Dream Library, setting up libraries at several locations in the Capital — Ramesh Park, Shastri Park and Mayur Vihar, a slum area near Yamuna Bank — for underprivileged kids.
“Coming to college, we didn’t realise what life would really be about but watching the curiosity in the kids’ lives, today I know what the real meaning of life is. During the process from ideation to implementation, we as a team faced numerous ups and downs but we sailed through. This implementation brought me more happiness than even getting into SRCC did,” says a member of the SRCC chapter of the foundation.
The team is all set to expand the project to six more locations.
The student-run body ensures that the children make use of the books regularly through weekly storytelling and book reading sessions. Sixty students from the college are associated with the project, including from the first and second years.
Uttam Gupta, a second-year student and one of the project’s directors, says, “Our aim is to uplift the underprivileged children by providing them
Coming to college, we didn’t realise what life would really be about but watching the curiosity in the kids’ lives, today I know what the real meaning of life is.
A MEMBER OF CONNECTING DREAMS FOUNDATION, SRCC
books to make sure that their fundamental right to education is fulfilled. We regularly conduct interactive sessions with the children to make them realise the importance of reading. The idea was not just to set up the libraries but also to ensure that the children make effective and
efficient use of the books. We have touched many lives with this project and it feels great when you are a part of the bigger cause.”
The team is now planning to make the libraries digital to keep the children updated on the technology front as well.