‘Si on Friends Circle' distributes free books& stationery to slum kids

‘Sion Friends Circle' a social group of 20 volunteers all office-goers in this pandemic induced lockdown have started an initiative of distributing free books & stationery to poor kids dwelling on pavements and in slums.

Ashok Kurmi, the founder of this group told the Free Press Journal, "We usually engage in different initiatives, so that we can do a bit for our society. In this critical situation school kids, who are from well to do family have an option of using smartphones and can keep the learning activity ongoing. However, poor kids staying on the pavements and in slums have no smartphones, and internet connections and thus they are most affected in this pandemic as all schools are shut. Therefore, for such kids so as to enable them to continue some of their learning activity we have provided them with notebooks, writing pads and other stationery items like drawing books, colour pencils, writing material, slate, chalk, etc. so that they can sit and study even without the internet."

Interestingly, the team without taking any help form others has contributed from their own pockets for buying all the stationery material. So far about 1,000 children have been given the stationery kit Kurmi said. Moreover, workings for a Pharmacy company as all his group members are, currently working from home have thought of implementing this initiative extensively. He said, "Intially we provided learning material to kids living on pavements at Sion. Later we distributed it to kids living in Dadar, Matunga, Chembur and other areas. It’s just been week's time that the drive has been launched. Moreover, we aim to reach out to a maximum number of children as lockdown has been extended till June 30 and we believe that the schools will not be opened that early as a precautionary measure. Through this initiative we want to reach out to maximum children so that they will not skip the education."